Time to Prepare
by Potterphile78
Summary: AU 6thyear story. Harry finds some interesting texts that help him prepare to fulfil his destiny.
1. Prelude: Breaking the Law

Disclaimer: All of the characters in this fanfiction belong to Ms. Rowling. I don't own them and am not making any money off of this story.

Time to Prepare

Prelude – Breaking the Law

For the ninth day in a row, Harry Potter sat alone, reading in his small bedroom at Number Four, Privet Drive. Contrary to what his friends might believe, he was dealing with the loss of his godfather fairly well, all things considered. Although the death still pained him, Harry knew that Sirius would not want him to waste away in endless depression. As such, he had thrown himself into studying with a vigor that would make Hermione jealous.

After re-reading all of his books from classes, birthdays and Christmas, Harry had sent a letter to Dumbledore begging for a brief trip to the #12 Grimmauld Place library to pick up some additional reading material. Having already removed all of the questionable books in the library, Dumbledore readily agreed to the request, hoping to repair some of the damage that had been done to their relationship over the past year.

Harry guessed that most of the books in the Black Library were at least several hundred years old, but they were in remarkably good shape. He had picked up 8 books on his trip, which was about all he could carry given the size of the texts:

_Harnessing the Mind_

_The Compendium of Laws (Self-Updating)_

_Getting There: Wizarding Transportation_

_The Complete Guide to the Healing Arts_

_Something from Nothing: A Primer on Conjuring_

_Magical Crafting_

_Spell Manipulation_

_Guide to Spells_

Harry started with _Harnessing the Mind_, hoping to learn a few things he could actually practice over the summer. Surpassing his wildest expectations, he found that the book was a comprehensive guide to Occlumency and Legilmency but went far beyond just those skills. In addition to learning more about Occlumency than he ever had with Snape, Harry learned a great deal about memorization techniques, fast recall, lucid dreaming, and focusing his magical power.

_The Compendium of Laws (Self-Updating)_ was up next, realizing that it was probably the only book that would not tempt him to use magic over the summer. Although practical, the book had nearly lulled Harry to sleep until he came to page 182:

_Restriction on Underage Use of Magic – Passed June 20, 1624_

_Young wizards and witches are prohibited from the use of magic until reaching their majority at the age of 17 except while attending a magical educational facility and under the supervision of a qualified adult witch or wizard._

_Addendum – Passed March 8, 1628_

_The Restriction on Underage Use of Magic shall apply only in times of peace and when the underage witch or wizard is not in danger of imminent harm._

Harry leapt from the bed and rifled through a stack of old Daily Prophets, finally finding the issue from the day after the debacle at the Department of Mysteries. There, plain as day, was a quote from Minister Fudge:

"_It is time to publicly announce what I have known for over a year - that You-know-who has returned. Make no mistake! The Ministry has been secretly working to bring this monster to justice for the past year. However, the time has come to inform the general public of this threat. The wizarding world is officially at war with He-who-must-not-be-named and his followers and your Ministry will not rest until the threat is resolved."_

It was almost too good to be true. With the "official" declaration of war with Voldemort, did that mean that underage wizards were no longer prohibited from using magic outside of school?

"Well, no time like the present. Lumos!" he said with slightly less confidence than he would have liked.

Harry took a deep breath and waited in silence. Several minutes later, a non-descript brown owl was tapping on his window. He opened the window and retrieved the letter from the owl. Not surprisingly, it was a notice of an upcoming hearing for using magic outside of Hogwarts.

Harry asked the owl to stay for a moment and sat down to write his response.

"Hmmm, what would Malfoy write?"

_Dear Sir or Madame,_

_I am in receipt of a notice implying that I violated the Restriction on Underage Use of Magic law this evening. This notice was clearly sent in error as no such violation occurred. Per the addendum to said law passed on March 8, 1628, the restriction applies only in times of peace. _

_I suggest you update your tracking system to reflect Minister Fudge's recent declaration of war against Voldemort and his followers. For my records, please reply with a confirmation that my hearing in three days time has been cancelled._

_Sincerely,_

_Harry Potter_

Harry re-read the letter. Finding it to be sufficiently Malfoyish, he tied it to the Ministry owl and sent it on its way. Having not finished the book of laws, he sincerely hoped that there were no laws against getting snarky with the Ministry that he had not yet read.

_Dear Mr. Potter,_

_The Ministry of Magic apologizes for any inconvenience caused by the notice sent earlier this evening. Upon further review, we find that no violation occurred at your residence and your hearing has been cancelled accordingly._

_Sincerely,_

_Mafalda Hopkirk_

_Improper Use of Magic Office_

Harry sighed with relief. "Well, this summer just got interesting…"

Author's Notes:

This is my first attempt at writing HP fan fiction. Future chapters should be up relatively quickly and will be longer than this prelude.


	2. Chapter 1: Revelations and Plans

Disclaimer: All of the characters in this fanfiction belong to Ms. Rowling. I don't own them and am not making any money off of this story.

Time to Prepare

Chapter 1 – Revelations and Plans

Knowing that he would be able to actually practice magic lit a fire under Harry and he immediately turned to the books from Grimmauld Place. He selected the _Guide to Spells, _which seemed like the most practical of the various books he had picked up. However, what Harry had assumed would be a compendium of interesting and useful spells was actually a treatise on the mechanics of magic. The introduction, however, caught his eye and he decided to give it a read:

* * *

_Magic is a unifying force flowing through everyone and everything. Contrary to popular belief, there is no such thing as "dark" or "light" magic. The same magic that kills an man can alternatively be used to summon this book from a shelf. The differentiation between spells is created by the wizard, not by the magic itself. _

_  
Unfortunately, today's wizard has become increasingly dependent on magical crutches and is forgetting that a wand and incantation are secondary tools to spellcasting, not essential components. When a wizard "learns" a spell, they are simply creating a mental correlation between a wand movement, an incantation and a desired effect. The wand and incantation help the wizard quickly focus their magic, but the most important component is the desired effect. With enough focus, a disciplined wizard can cast spells wordlessly and wandlessly. _

_Wordless and wandless magic (addressed in the first two sections of this book) are only the beginning. The third, and most important, section of this book is dedicated to spell creation and personalization. Spellcasting is not bound by existing magical knowledge and with practice and discipline, a wizard can create their own spells or modify those created by other wizards. This practice is bound only by imagination and patience, which admittedly makes it a momentous (if not impossible) undertaking for most wizards. _

_In this author's opinion, it is a travesty to teach spells to other wizards. As such, there will be no descriptions of silly wand-waving or meaningless incantations in this text. As I write this book, so-called wizarding "schools" are being established throughout Europe. I have reviewed the curricula of many of these schools (as I have been asked to teach at most of them) and find them to be lacking any meaningful insight. My intent in writing this text is to provide an alternative to what is becoming the accepted form of magical education. _

_I leave readers with one piece of advice and one promise. My advice is that you forget all you know about spells and magic – a blank canvas is so much easier to work with. My promise is that this book will change your life._

_Myrddin of Celyddon

* * *

_

Harry released a breath he didn't realize he was holding. Was this guy serious? How could this one book take the place of an entire education at Hogwarts?

It was a pleasant surprise to find that the ideas and techniques in _Harnessing the Mind _actually had a lot in common with the _Guide to Spells_. Harry found that it was much easier to focus on a desired effect clearly in his mind when he was practicing occlumency.

When it came down to it, the _Guide to Spells _actually made a lot of sense and Harry was practicing constantly. Coming as a great relief, wandless magic was actually surprisingly easy. Harry had no particular attachment to his own wand, knowing that its brother was carried by Voldemort himself. As such, he had focused primarily on wandless magic in his practice sessions. Thus far, he was able to cast most spells with relatively simple effects without a wand, including levitation, summoning, banishing, and lumos spells.

Perhaps it was the result of five years of shouting incantations, but Harry was still having trouble with wordless magic. He decided to re-read that section of Myrddin's book later to see if he missed something.

As he worked through the remaining books from the Black Library, Harry found that he was now reading them more for ideas than instruction. The _Guide to Spells_ unifying theme was that wizards are limited only by their mind and imagination. There was no shame in reading how other wizards had solved various problems.

_The Complete Guide to the Healing Arts _included a fascinating spell to literally slow time around a patient, thereby granting the healer more time to work. The incantation (or "suggested" incantation as he had come to regard such things) was Tempus Retardo. According to the healing guide, tempus retardo would slow time around the patient to 1/20th of its normal rate. Aside from his brief experience with a time-turner in his third year, Harry had never encountered magic that manipulated time.

He bookmarked the page for future review before realizing that his stomach was rumbling loud enough to wake the whole neighborhood. He then decided to practice some of what he learned in his book on conjuring. He visualized a roast beef sandwich and focused his magic on the desk in front of him. Upon opening his eyes, Harry realized that his first attempt at conjuring was a miserable failure. What appeared on his desk was a sandwich-shaped mass that appeared to be made of an amalgamation of roast beef, bread, lettuce, and tomatoes.

'Well, I guess I better learn to walk before I run' he thought.

After quickly banishing the brownish-green mass to the rubbish bin, Harry tried again by first conjuring two slices of bread. Gaining confidence now, he conjured slices of roast beef, and all the fixings separately.

'Now that I'm working on a full stomach, let's see what we can do about this room. This just isn't going to work if I'm going to be practicing magic in here all summer,' Harry thought as he pulled out his book on magical crafting, 'I know I saw the perfect spell in here somewhere.' With that he flipped through the book looking for the room-expanding spell he was looking for. He found what he was looking for in the chapter on magical trunks.

Harry cleared his mind and visualized a larger version of his room before practically shouting "Lacuna Dilato" as he pointed his hand at the east wall of his bedroom. The results were dramatic as the wall and window were pushed out about 30 meters. Harry thought, 'Whoa, that was a bit more expansion than I expected, but this can work' as he proceeded to expand his room to the north as well, creating a rather large space.

'Darn! I can't have the Dursleys seeing that I'm living in a space four times the size of their house, can I?' With that thought, Harry proceeded to reassemble his tiny bedroom, walls and all, in the southwest corner of his new, very large room. He did, however move his wardrobe against the east wall to serve as the door to the extended living space.

It took a few hours for Harry to properly charm the false window in his tiny room to display the normal view outside his window. The first several tries resulted in a window that seemed to overlook a four-year-old's drawing of privet drive.

Harry next went to work on all of the extra space beyond his wardrobe. By expanding the room north and east by 30 meters, he had a very spacious home to decorate. The space immediately through the wardrobe became a quaint sitting room with several Gryffindor-red couches, a fireplace, and some bookshelves.

Next to the sitting room, Harry decided to put in a kitchen, which took several days as he struggled with how to "visualize" things like heating and cooling charms for the refrigerator and stove. The hard work was worth it in the end, as Harry realized that Myrddin's book really had changed his life. Although not knowing a good incantation and wand movement for each spell made things much more difficult, it was very satisfying work.

For the next two weeks, Harry never left his "room". His expanded space was now filled in with a dining room, living room, library (which was yet to be filled with books), master bedroom, master bathroom, and four guest bedrooms with attached bathrooms. Harry had no idea when he would ever use them, but it didn't hurt to be prepared for company. He was sure to leave a sizable portion of the space empty so that he could practice magic.

Although it was never as good as the food at Hogwarts or Mrs. Weasley's cooking, Harry became quite adept and conjuring his own meals. He found that it worked best to conjure ingredients separately and to do the actual cooking himself. By making his own food, Harry avoided the anemic feeling he usually got by midsummer staying at Privet Drive and even grew a few inches and some muscle during July.

With his birthday looming, Harry decided to surprise all of his friends by throwing himself a birthday party at his new flat. He consulted his book on wizarding transportation and turned each invitation into a time-activated portkey. Assuming he performed the spell correctly, which he sincerely hoped he did, all of his friends would be arriving in his living room at 6pm on his birthday.

Harry sent Hedwig off with all of the invitations on July 30 and promptly burst into laughter at the thought of the various reactions people would have upon receiving his letter. 'If they're shocked when they get the invitations, I can't wait until they arrive here tomorrow night.'


	3. Chapter 2: Happy Birthday

Disclaimer: All of the characters in this fanfiction belong to Ms. Rowling. I don't own them and am not making any money off of this story.

Time to Prepare

Chapter 2 – Happy Birthday

Harry had stayed up most of the night preparing for his birthday party. As such, he was not happy to be awoken by pounding on his door at 7am on July 31.

"BOY! Come out of that room! One of your freaks is here and I won't have his abnormalness in my house" his Uncle Vernon bellowed through the door.

Harry quickly threw on some clothes and was emerging from his wardrobe just as Vernon was entering the room.

"What the bloody hell were you doing in your wardrobe, boy? You're not using magic in my home are you?"

"Of course not, Uncle Vernon" Harry replied in his best, submissive voice even though he wanted nothing more than to cast a silencing charm on his uncle right at that very moment.

"Well get downstairs and make the freak go away."

"Yes Uncle Vernon"

As Harry came down the stairs, he was surprised to see Albus Dumbledore attempting to make small-talk with his Aunt Petunia.

"Professor! What are you doing here?"

"Well Harry, the most peculiar thing happened yesterday. I received an invitation to a student's birthday party, followed by twelve letters asking me for permission to attend the same party." Dumbledore said with a twinkle in his eye.

Harry concentrated for a moment before replying. "Most peculiar Professor. Do people often ask you for permission to attend parties during the summer holiday?" Harry said with a twinkle in his own eye.

Dumbledore jumped as he saw the emerald-green twinkle and laughed heartily. "My goodness, Harry, you are certainly full of surprises these past few days. And I must admit that I am not often surprised these days. As everything seems to be in order here, I'll leave you until this evening." as he turned and opened the door to leave.

"Oh Professor!" Harry called after him.

"Yes?"

"Did you…umm…check the invitation?"

"Yes, Harry, I did." And with that, Albus Dumbledore disappeared with a barely audible pop.

Harry turned to go back to his room and was grabbed harshly by the arm before he had a chance to escape his relatives.

"What's this about a birthday party, boy? Don't think you're having your freak friends in my house, do you hear me?" Uncle Vernon shouted directly into his face, spittle flying everywhere.

"You have nothing to worry about Uncle Vernon, there won't be any freaks in your house tonight." Harry said as he looked directly into his uncle's eyes and gave a distinct twinkle.

As if shocked by electricity, Vernon released Harry and stood dumbfounded by what he had just seen, giving Harry the opportunity to run back up to his room and place strong locking and sealing charms on his door.

'You know….I used to think that Dumbledore's eyes twinkled when he smiled. I'm starting to wonder if its actually the other way around and he is laughing inside at the reactions people have when they look in his eyes.' Harry thought as he went through his wardrobe to his flat.

* * *

Harry spent the rest of the day before his party reading _Spell Manipulation_ and couldn't help thinking that Myrrdin would wholeheartedly approve of this book. The text had chapters on changing the color, duration, and shape of spells. The author suggested adding words to incantations to specify how the spell should be changed.

Harry held up his hand and said "Lumos Viridis" and a bright, emerald-green light appeared above his hand. "Awesome!" he shouted and whooped his hand in the air before spending the next few hours practicing making all of his spells appear emerald green even without any extra words.

'Well, I still have a few hours before everyone is scheduled to arrive, might as well try some other types of spell manipulation' Harry thought as he flipped through the book looking for some other ideas. Settling on an area-of-effect adjustment for spells, he pointed at the desk in his sitting room and shouted "Leviosa Cunctus!" All of the objects on the desk proceeded to rise a few feet off the desk.

After setting all the objects on the desk again, Harry spotted a singular quill sitting on the desk. With a mischievous gleam in his eye, he pointed at the feather and said "Wingardium Levio-SAH" and nearly fell off of his chair laughing as the quill rose into the air. 'If Hermione only knew.'

* * *

Harry stood in his living room in a very nice pair of black slacks and a light blue polo shirt he had transfigured from some of Dudley's old clothes. At 6pm exactly, fifteen guests appeared in front of him, twelve of whom stood slack-jawed and unable to move or speak.

Albus Dumbledore, Dobby the house-elf, and Luna Lovegood seemed unfazed and proceeded to wish Harry a happy birthday.

"Happy birthday, Harry. Lovely home you have here" Luna said absentmindedly as she stepped away from the crowd and looked around the room. "How long have you had a Dribblehuff infestation?"

"Oh, just a few days actually. Haven't had a chance to take care of it yet" hoping that it was the right thing to say.

"Right, I'm sure you've been busy with all the new magic you've been learning and the renovations you've done in here. I'll take care of it for you…" and she walked off, occasionally waving her hand through the air and muttering under her breath.

For a brief moment, there were thirteen slack-jawed people in the room. 'How'd she know about the renovations and new magic?'

Harry quickly recovered as Dobby nearly bowled him over in a hug. "Harry Potter is a great wizard to invite Dobby to his birthday party! Dobby is bringing Harry Potter a present!" the tiny house-elf said, handing over the present.

Harry replied, "Thank you, Dobby. You didn't have to bring anything. I just wanted to have all of my friends here to share the day with me," but immediately regretted saying that as the house-elf broke down into sobs. Harry knelt down beside the house-elf and whispered in his ear, "I used to cry when people called me their friend too. You'll get used to it." and handed him a beautiful handkerchief with the initials HP embroidered in one corner.

Albus Dumbledore was next to wish Harry a happy birthday. After a brief eye-sparkling duel, the mentor and student hugged and laughed almost hysterically. "Harry, today is not the right time, but I would like to meet with you next week to discuss your schedule in the upcoming year."

"Sure thing Professor. How about lunch at the Leaky Cauldron at, say, 11:30 on Tuesday?"

"That sounds delightful Harry."

"So…um….how long do you think they'll stay like that?" Harry said pointing to Ron, Ginny, Fred, George, Hermione, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Neville, Remus, Tonks, Hagrid, and Professor McGonagall, who all remained standing exactly where they first appeared.

"I'm not sure they will ever recover if you do not take drastic action"

Smiling, Harry turned to the rest of his friends, concentrated for a moment, and created a blinding flash of green light all around him. "OY! If you're all done gawking we have a party to get started."

With that, Harry opened the door to his practice area which he had redecorated for the occasion. On one side of the room was a long dining table set for twenty-four. At the other end of the room, the band was setting up its equipment on a small stage.

"Harry! How did you get the Weird Sisters to play your birthday party?" Ginny squealed.

"I asked." He replied matter-of-factly.

"You are too much Mister Potter" and with that she leaned in and gave him a kiss on his cheek before running up to meet the band.

With the ice broken, all of his other guests began to function again and the party started in earnest. It was Hermione that asked the question that was on everyone's mind. "Harry, how did you do all this?"

"I've been practicing" Harry replied with a sparkle in his eye.

Hermione gasped, "You can't practice magic in the summer Harry, you're going to be in so much trouble!"

"Actually, Hermione, this summer I CAN. Don't you read the papers?"

Becoming frustrated with his curt answers, Hermione grabbed him by the ear. "Harry James Potter you tell me what is going on right this moment!"

Harry proceeded to explain all about his revelation regarding the restrictions on underage use of magic, after which Hermione chased him around the room throwing hexes at him for not telling her sooner.

The entire group, including the Weird Sisters, sat down for a very nice dinner shortly thereafter. As Harry brought out platters of food, he noticed Dobby shifting uncomfortably in his chair and made a mental note to talk to Dobby later about being a guest and not a servant in Harry's home.

The dinner conversation was lighthearted as the group got to know each other better. Even Dobby shared stories, causing riotous laughter when he recounted all of the things he had done to "protect" Harry in his second year.

When dinner ended, Molly Weasley slipped out of the room and enlarged the cake she had made for the occasion. After lighting the candles, she re-entered the room just as Fred and George were demonstrating their new Insta-slick Icebomb to Neville and Luna. As Molly slipped, the cake went flying across the room.

Without even thinking, Harry pointed his hand at the cake and said the first spell that came to mind. "Tempus Retardo!" and the cake slowed in mid-air. He then casually walked over and picked the cake up and placed it back on the table. "Why is everyone staring at me?"

Hermione was the first to speak up. "Harry, there are so many things wrong with what just happened that I don't know where to start."

"I do!" Ron blurted out, "You just did that without a wand, mate."

Harry had the good grace to look a bit sheepish at that, mumbling "yeah…I've been doing that a lot lately. Is that why you're all staring?" Everyone but Hermione, Dumbledore, and Remus nodded. "What's the big deal? I've seen Professor Dumbledore do things wandlessly all the time though."

"Yeah but he's…" Ron paused not knowing how to finish.

"He's Dumbledore" Fred and George chimed in simultaneously.

Hermione finally regained her composure "Harry, it's not just that you did it wandlessly. I've only read about a time-slowing spell once, and it was in a book called _Lost Magickes_, but the book didn't know the incantation. I just thought it was a fairy tale."

"Is that all? I found the incantation Hermione. So what?"

"I'm just getting started, Harry. The way you cast the spell doesn't even make sense. If you cast the time-slowing spell on a cake, it would slow things down for only for the cake, basically making it last a lot longer. But you made it practically stop in mid-air, meaning you didn't slow time for the cake, but the entire area around it as well."

"I guess I don't have much of an explanation for that. All I can say is that I didn't want to make the cake last longer, I wanted to reach it before it hit the ground." Harry could have sworn he saw Dumbledore smile for a moment.

Getting very quiet, the last thing Hermione said was "You shouldn't have reached in to grab the cake Harry…" before slipping away to the washroom.

Molly took that as her cue to light the candles and the Weird Sisters played a very odd rendition of the happy birthday song. For the first time ever, Harry made a wish and blew out his candles in the company of the people he loved.

The party moved into full swing after that, with plenty of dancing, talking, and just enjoying each others' company. At around 11pm, Molly suggested that Harry open his presents.

With everyone gathered around, he worked his way through the largest pile of presents he had ever received. Along with the usual assortment of food, clothes, books, and quiddich supplies, Harry received a few unique presents.

Neville gave Harry a picture of his parents and Harry's parents at St. Mungos, each holding a newborn baby boy and beaming at the camera. Harry gave Neville a big hug and a heartfelt thank you.

Tonks' present was a letter of recommendation for admittance to the Auror training program signed by herself, Alastor Moody, and Kingsley Shacklebolt.

Harry wasn't quite sure what to make of Ginny's present, a diary, but it wasn't a topic he wanted to discuss with her in front of everyone at the party.

The biggest surprise was Luna's present - a single tissue. As he looked up, not sure whether to thank her, laugh, or cry, when he suddenly sneezed. Without missing a beat, Luna then handed him a second present, powdered snorkack horn, which she explained was great for warding off buzzlenubs. Harry could have sworn he saw Dumbledore nod at her explanation.

The party wrapped up at around 2am and everyone started to take port-keys home. Harry's friends all promised to come visit him more often now that he had his own place. Overall, it was the best birthday he ever had.


	4. Chapter 3: Meetings

Disclaimer: All of the characters in this fanfiction belong to Ms. Rowling. I don't own them and am not making any money off of this story.

Time to Prepare

Chapter 3 – Meetings

Tuesday at 11:00am, Harry was dressed and ready to meet with Dumbledore. He activated the port-key he made for the occasion and arrived in the courtyard behind the Leaky Cauldron. As he entered the pub, he realized how much his relationship with Dumbledore had changed over just the past month. The idea of Harry making a trip on his own to Diagon Alley without a full contingent of Order guards would be unthinkable last summer. This year, however, Dumbledore seemed to think it was a great idea to meet at the Leaky Cauldron and never once brought up how Harry planned on getting there.

It dawned on Harry why things had changed, 'Oh my god, he thinks I'm an adult'

Harry sat down at a table to wait for his Professor. He was really looking forward to meeting with Dumbledore outside of school. Conversations with Dumbledore were unique in that there were always two discussions happening, the spoken and the unspoken. Looking back, most of the spoken conversations he had with Dumbledore were quite boring, but the ones happening below the surface were absolutely fascinating.

At exactly 11:30, Professor Albus Dumbledore walked into the Leaky Cauldron, spotted Harry at a table in the corner and joined him.

"Harry, so good to see you. I trust your week is going well?"

"Very well Professor. And yours?"

"Probably not as eventful as yours, but good nonetheless. I am, as usual, having trouble filling the Defense Against the Dark Arts position. And please, call me Albus outside of school Harry."

"Alright, Prof…Albus. And I wouldn't worry too much about the defense position. You couldn't possibly do any worse than last year."

"It's funny that you should say that, Harry, because I am quite tempted to ask Ms. Umbridge if she is interested in returning in the fall. Hogwarts' OWL and NEWT scores in defense against the dark arts were the highest since I began teaching many years ago."

Harry choked on his butterbeer before stammering, "R-r-really Albus? That is…um…surprising."

"Obviously, we had a truly outstanding teacher at Hogwarts last year," Dumbledore said with a flash of his signature twinkle.

"I think there are several outstanding teachers at Hogwarts, Albus, but I wouldn't count Delores Umbridge among them." Harry replied with his own twinkle.

"Nor would I, Harry, nor would I."

The two talked like old friends as they ordered and ate their lunches. When the plates were cleared, Dumbledore went back to business.

"Harry, I'd like to discuss your schedule for next year in light of your…'extracurricular' activities this summer."

"I'm listening"

"I'm getting ahead of myself, however" and he pulled a Hogwarts letter from what appeared to be thin air and handed it to Harry.

Harry quickly skimmed through the letter, finally reaching his results:

Astronomy - A

Defense Against the Dark Arts – O

Potions – E

Transfiguration – E

Divination – A

Herbology – E

Charms – O

Care of Magical Creatures – E

History of Magic – D

Harry sighed. Eight OWLs wasn't bad, but he hadn't received the Outstanding in Potions he needed to get into the NEWT level course.

"You should be proud, Harry. You did quite well, especially considering the circumstances surrounding last year."

"Don't get me wrong, Albus. I'm very happy with the scores, but it calls my career plans into question."

"Ah yes, Minerva told me about your plans to enter the Auror Academy after graduation. May I ask why you chose that particular career path?"

Harry thought for a moment. "Actually Albus, it was just the first thing that came to mind."

"Allow me to change the topic for a moment, Harry. Indulge an old man's ramblings if you will." Albus started, getting a bit more serious. "Both of us have a problem. I, the Headmaster of Hogwarts, am having trouble finding a teacher for Defense Against the Dark Arts. You, Harry Potter, a rather gifted Defense Against the Dark Arts student, find yourself looking for a new career. I can't help but wonder if we can help each other with our problems."

Harry laughed at what he assumed was a joke before looking at a completely serious Albus Dumbledore. "You can't be serious, Albus. How could I teach classes when I'm still a student? I don't see how I would have the time."

"An excellent question. Let me respond with another. Harry, what classes would you like to take next year that you truly feel you could learn from?"

Harry looked into the Headmaster's eyes and immediately understood the unspoken meaning. He had achieved a level of magical knowledge surpassing anything taught at Hogwarts in several subjects.

"I suppose I would want to take Herbology and Care of Magical Creatures." Harry replied after some thought, knowing that the material covered in class in Charms, Transfiguration, and Defense Against the Dark Arts would be pretty remedial after this summer.

"Did you know, Harry, that teachers at Hogwarts have two free mornings or afternoons in their schedule each week?"

Harry didn't respond but nodded for the Headmaster to continue.

"I actually prepared the course schedule for next year just yesterday and have a copy with me. Would you like to see it?" And Dumbledore slid a rather large piece of paper over to Harry's side of the table.

Harry scanned the schedule until he found _"Defence Against the Dark Arts – Professor Unknown"_ and noticed there were no classes scheduled on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. Scanning further down the schedule, he found that 6th-year NEWT-level Herbology was schedule for Tuesday afternoons. Coming as a huge surprise, NEWT-level Care of Magical Creatures was scheduled for Thursday afternoon.

Meeting the Headmaster's eyes once again, Harry said "I'm sorry Headmaster, but I can't accept the Defense Against the Dart Arts position." However, Dumbledore did not miss the twinkle in Harry's eye.

"Why is that Mr. Potter?"

Instead of replying, Harry moved his hand over the schedule and concentrated for a moment before sliding the schedule back to Dumbledore.

Dumbledore chuckled as he looked down and saw _"Defense Against Dark Wizards – Professor Harry Potter" _

"So" Harry said, "When do we discuss salary and benefits?" and with that, Harry Potter and Albus Dumbledore went from mentor and student to colleagues.

"I think you'll find that Hogwarts' Professors are very well paid. And the health care is unmatched." He added with a twinkle. "I'll leave it up to you whether you want to move into the faculty quarters next to Minerva's in Gryffindor Tower or stay in your dormitory."

Harry and Dumbledore made light small-talk for a while longer before deciding to be on their respective ways. As they were leaving the pub, Dumbledore turned to Harry and said "One more thing Professor. I don't know that the general populace is ready for your…unique…perspective on magic." And with that he disapparated away.

Harry smiled. 'The general populace might not be ready, but I know a few people who are.' He thought before activating his port-key home.

* * *

Two days later, Harry gathered his closest friends in the living room of his flat. All he had told them was that they should inform their parents/guardians that they would be gone all day, coming home late that night.

"Did you all bring your wands with you today?"

Everyone pulled out their wand.

Harry stood in front of his five best friends and took a deep breath. "Do you guys trust me?"

He was met with a chorus of "Of course" and "Absolutely".

"Alright, snap your wands in half."

Hermione, Ron and Neville looked at Harry like he had grown a second head. To his right, Harry heard a distinctive snap as Luna's wand became a thing of the past. He turned to Luna who was smiling and looking at him expectantly as if they were playing a game of simon says. As Harry returned the smile, he heard a second snap coming from Ginny's direction. 'That was unexpected.'

"Luna, Ginny, would you mind waiting in the sitting room for a few minutes?"

The two girls got up and walked out of the room giggling like they had just performed the naughtiest act of their lives.

'Now comes the hard part' Harry thought as he turned to the remaining three.

He handed Hermione his copy of _Guide to Spells_ with the introduction bookmarked. She opened her mouth to say something, but Harry simply held up his hand to stop her and said one word. "Read". With that, Hermione took the book to a corner of the living room and began.

"Alright you two, what's the problem?"

Ron was the first to speak up. "The problem is that you've gone bonkers! Don't you remember how much trouble I was in when I broke my wand in second year? Why would I do a thing like that on purpose?"

"Because you're my best mate and I only want what's best for you" was Harry's only reply.

SNAP

Harry turned to Neville who was looking embarrassed. "I know you just got your own wand a couple weeks ago, Neville, but you have to trust me. You don't need it and you are better off without one."

SNAP

Harry turned to Hermione who was just finishing reading the page he had marked. As she reached the end she paled, slammed the book and...

SNAP

"Hermione, would you mind getting Luna and Ginny and meeting us in the practice room? Things are about to get interesting"

Author's Notes:

To my first reviewer, Bobboky, thank you! I'm glad you are enjoying the story so far and I completely agree with you. Luna does rock! I hope to do her justice in this story. She deserves it after the way her house treats her.


	5. Chapter 4: Training

Disclaimer: All of the characters in this fanfiction belong to Ms. Rowling. I don't own them and am not making any money off of this story.

Time to Prepare

Chapter 4 – Training

Hermione turned to Ron and Neville, "Would you two mind getting Ginny and Luna instead, I need to speak with Harry alone for a moment." As they left the room, she turned to Harry, "Where did you get this Harry? Do you have any idea what this is?" she asked holding up the guide.

"I got it from the Black Library. And of course I know what it is. It's a book on doing magic without wants, words, or even known spells. I have read it, you know."

"That's not what I mean…this introduction is signed by Myrddin of Celyddon."

Harry gave her his best 'get to the point' look.

Nearly screaming in frustration she pointed in the air and the words Myrddin of Celyddon appeared. With a wave of her hand the words changed and became Merlin Caledonensis. With a final flourish, the word Caledonensis disappeared and Harry was left staring at the word "Merlin" floating in front of him.

A slight cough from the doorway announced the presence of their other friends.

"Hermione….um…how did you do that?" came Ginny's voice from behind Ron and Neville.

At that moment, Harry recovered his composure after Hermione's revelation and spoke up. "What Hermione just did is why you're all here. You're going to learn a new way to do magic today."

"Mate, I appreciate your confidence in us, but I'm starting to think you have gone bonkers. You expect us to be able to function without wands by the end of the day?" Ron said in disbelief.

"Not exactly" Harry replied closing his eyes and focusing his mind on a singular purpose. After a few moments, he opened his eyes and shouted "Tempus Retardo Omnis" and emerald-green light was sent out in every direction.

Hermione coughed softly, "Um, Harry? Slowing us down doesn't help matters…now we have even less time to learn."

"I didn't slowUS down, Hermione." Harry replied and walked past his friends into the practice room, saying over his shoulder as he left "and close your mouths guys. You're going to attract dribblehuffs."

Luna laughed uproariously and followed him into the practice room. "Oh Harry, don't be silly. Dribblehuffs can't even tell if a person's mouth is open or not."

Once everyone was gathered again, Harry turned to Ginny. "Gin, where did you learn the Bat-Bogey Hex?"

"Gosh Harry, I don't really remember….I've just always known it."

"I want you to cast it on me." As she opened her mouth to protest, Harry met her eyes, gave her a little twinkle, and whispered "I know you can do this Gin."

Ginny pointed her hand at Harry and said "Bat-Bogey". Nothing happened and she looked embarrassed and disappointed.

"It's alright Gin. This time, close your eyes and I want you to visualize what the hex does. Take a few minutes if you need to and really get a clear picture in your head. Then try again." Harry looked around at his other friends and found that they were paying rapt attention as he spoke to Ginny. For the first time since he had known her, Luna had a serious expression on her face.

"Bat-Bogey!" and suddenly Harry's world exploded in pain. He imagined it must feel an awful lot like giving birth through his nose.

"Ginny! Take it off of him!"

"I'm trying Ron! It's hard to concentrate with everyone yelling."

A few minutes later, Ginny calmed herself and visualized ending her hex. With a wave of her hand, it was over.

As Harry staggered to his feet, Ginny tried to look inconspicuous by standing behind Neville. "Ginny?"

"Yes, Harry?"

"That was bloody brilliant! Now I know why all your brothers are afraid of you."

With that she leapt up and gave him a big hug and kiss.

"You must have a hell of an imagination to create that hex, Ginny. That's going to help a lot." Harry whispered into her ear.

"Hermione, you've already done some wandless magic in the other room. Why don't you go with Ginny and practice while I work with these guys. Just remember to take your time visualizing exactly what you are trying to do with the spell. When you are levitating an object, it's not enough to think about levitation. You need to really see the object floating into the air before you cast the spell."

Harry noticed Neville looking very nervous. "What's wrong, Nev?"

"Harry, I don't think I can do this. I'm not a powerful wizard like you."

"This isn't about power, Neville. Being able to cast spells without a wand or words is about mental strength, and I KNOW you have that in abundance."

Harry almost felt bad at what he was about to do. Harry thought for a moment and conjured a life-size likeness of Bellatrix Lestrange pointing her wand at Neville. "What are you going to do Neville? You don't have your wand and you're face to face with the woman who tortured your parents."

Neville looked like he was about to break into tears before his head snapped up to the likeness and he shouted "Reducto!" before crumpling to the ground sobbing.

Harry was momentarily surprised at the force with which the likeness exploded, but quickly joined his friend and pulled him into a hug, whispering "I'm so sorry Neville, but I had to show you that the power is in you. You can be a great wizard."

When Neville settled down, he stood up to go join Hermione and Ginny, who were both trying to keep a lumos spell going for more than a brief flicker.

As Harry stood, he next turned to Ron. "How about a game of chess, mate?"

Confused, but always up for a good chess match, Ron agreed and Harry summoned a chess set. After setting up the pieces, he started the game by saying "Knight's pawn to E5" and the game was on as the tiny piece stood up, took a few steps forward, and went back into a crouch.

Ron countered with a similar move, and made quick work of Harry. Only twenty minutes later, Ron made his final move. "Knight takes queen" and as Ron's knight drew its sword and shattered Harry's queen, he smiled and said "Checkmate, Harry. Good game."

Luna, who had been watching the game while playing with her necklace and humming, stopped for a moment before turning to Harry. "Oh dear, perhaps I'll pick you up another muggle chess set before school, Harry. This one looks ruined." Without another word, she summoned a piece of parchment and a quill from Harry's bedroom desk and wrote down _"Harry – Chess Set"_.

Harry turned from a still speechless Ron to ask "Luna, have you always been able to do wandless and wordless magic?"

"Oh no, Harry. This was the first time. You're an excellent teacher." And she tucked the piece of parchment into a pocket. "What's next, this is fun?"

Harry reassembled the whole group now that everyone had proved to themselves that they would do magic without a wand. They spent the next six hours learning occlumency and the mental discipline techniques from the book _Harnessing the Mind_.

About ten hours after they arrived, Neville spoke up. "Harry, this has been great, but its getting late. I should be getting home before Gran gets worried."

"I wouldn't worry about that Nev. Your gran won't start getting worried for another eight days or so."

"Which is something we're going to have a talk about later, Harry" Hermione interjected. "Time magic isn't something you should be playing with. Its really dangerous."

"Well, if we're going to be staying here for a while, can we eat something? I'm starving." Ron added.

"Actually, in the noble house of Potter, you only eat what you can make."

The six friends spend the next several hours trying to conjure food and cook. The kitchen looked like a disaster area, but they had the time of their lives making the dinner, which meant it tasted like a Hogwarts feast to them. As dinner ended, Harry showed everyone to the guest rooms and the whole group was asleep within five minutes. It had been an exhausting day.

For the next six days, the group practiced performing spells without wands, each day attempting more and more difficult spells. On the eighth day of everyone staying at Harry's flat, he gathered the group back in the practice room.

"You've all made really amazing progress this week and I'm afraid that after today you'll have to head back to your homes. As you can see out the window, its starting to get dark out there. I'd guess we have another ten or eleven hours in here. Unfortunately, we have a lot of work to do before leaving here without wands."

"What do you mean, Harry? Yesterday we couldn't even think of any spells we couldn't do without a wand."

Harry turned and replied "I'm going to stun you, Ron" and a few moments later he did. Ron fell to the floor with a thump. After Hermione cast the counterjinx on Ron, Harry asked "Why didn't you stop me?"

Ron just mumbled "I didn't have a chance to."

"I even warned you before I did it Ron. You would have had a shield up before the words left my mouth if you had a wand. That's the problem. We're too slow right now. We won't have the luxury of composing ourselves for thirty seconds before we cast each spell once we leave this house."

"So what are we going to do?" Ginny asked.

"We're going to play a game." Harry responded with a wink. "Anyone ever play dodgeball?"

Ron, Ginny, and Neville shook their heads no, and Hermione responded in the affirmative, but it was obvious from her reaction that it was not a game she enjoyed.

Harry conjured a ball about the size of a bludger, but without the nasty attitude. He then drew a line down the center of the room. "Well, we're going to be playing a magical variant. We're going to be in two teams. Ron, Luna, and Neville are team one and Hermione, Ginny and I are team two. The object of the game is to not touch the ball. Ever. If you touch the ball for any reason, you're out and you need to go sit on the benches against that wall."

"What benches?"

"First person to be out gets that job. Any other questions?"

Harry set the ball in the middle of the room and walked over to his team on one side. "Ready? Set? Go!"

Everyone sat there looking at the ball, which did nothing.

"Sheesh, take some initiative guys." Harry said before closing his eyes for a moment and visualizing the banishing charm. "Expulsum!" and the ball went flying towards Ron, who only barely jumped out of the way.

Surprisingly, Neville was the next person to catch on. After getting behind the ball, he shouted "Expulsum" followed alarmingly quickly by "Avis!". The ball came flying towards Ginny surrounded by a flock of birds, making it very difficult to see.

With that, Ginny was the first elimination of the game. Harry turned to Neville and said "Great job! That was impressive" which earned him a dirty look from Ginny.

Harry looked to Hermione, hoping she would make the next move for their team, but she just waved him on. Harry cast another "Expulsum" sending the ball straight at Ron. From behind him, he heard a very soft "Cunfundus" and Ron was out, though it took a few moments for him to realize it.

"Did I ever tell you you're brilliant Hermione?"

"Not often enough"

Neville took the initiative again and sent the ball flying towards Hermione with the same "Avis" kicker.

Hermione was ready for this trick, however, and replied "Aquilo!" which blew a strong gust of wind at Neville, blowing the birds and ball right back to him. It was now down to Luna against Hermione and Harry.

Luna casually walked over to the ball and said "Addovita" and whispered a few words that couldn't be heard by anyone else. With that the ball seemed to turn to look at Hermione and bounced off in her direction. As it grew nearer, Hermione did a quick sidestep and the ball bounced right by her. Satisfied, she began thinking of her next attack, when the ball came back from behind and hit her in the bum.

Harry cast a quick "Finite Incantatum" before meeting the same fate as Hermione, as the ball had just turned and 'spotted' him. As he didn't have any brilliant ideas like Hermione he cast an enthusiastic banishing charm on the ball, hoping that Luna just wasn't athletic enough to dodge it.

"Vallum" and a wall rose out of the floor blocking the ball. Luna followed up with her own "Expulsum" sending it back towards Harry, who relied on his seeker reflexes to sidestep the attack.

As Harry thought of his next move, he heard Luna say "Accio" and a moment later the ball hit him on the back of the head.

Ron and Neville jumped up to congratulate their teammate. Ginny and Hermione were shouting for a rematch, which everyone quickly agreed to. Ginny was a woman on a mission, wanting to make up for being knocked out first in the last match. Neville almost ran away when he saw the look in her eyes directed at him.

By the end of the day, everyone was thoroughly exhausted but had improved their spellcasting speed immensely. The six friends said goodbye and went their separate ways, but not before agreeing to meet at Diagon Alley to pick up their school supplies.

As he fell asleep that night, Harry smiled and thought of how sorry he felt for the next deatheater who goes after someone Harry loves.

Author's Notes:

I was really glad to see another person comment on Luna. I think she is probably the hardest character to write. It's hard to get her airy quality come off well in written words.

I will note that although I love Luna, Harry does not. If there is any love interest in the story (which I am still debating whether to keep in the outline I've drawn out or not), it will not be Luna. I'm not a big fan of romance stories so if there is any at all in this story, it will be a small subplot. I won't be doing chapter after chapter describing wonderful dates in excruciating detail.


	6. Chapter 5: More Meetings

Disclaimer: All of the characters in this fanfiction belong to Ms. Rowling. I don't own them and am not making any money off of this story.

Time to Prepare

Chapter 5 – More Meetings

With a pop much louder than he would have liked, Harry appeared just outside the Shrieking Shack in Hogsmeade. He had been reading about apparition in his book on wizarding travel and had been dying to try it. 'I hope I don't get in trouble for doing that without a license.' He thought as he walked towards Hogwarts.

As he reached the gates, Harry sighed, seeing that another teacher had arrived at the same time. "Professor Snape." He said curtly in greeting.

"Potter, what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be hiding at your filthy muggle relatives' house?"

"I see you haven't lost any of your charm over the summer, Professor."

"You didn't answer my question, Potter."

"No, Professor, I didn't." And Harry added a little sparkle to his eye as he turned and walked through the gates to school.

Snape did not like being dismissed by a child, and immediately drew his wand.

Without even turning around to look at him, Harry said calmly "Put your little stick away, Professor. You'll put your eye out." and he continued walking to the castle.

Harry and Snape arrived at the great hall where a single table was set up and all of the other professors were standing around chatting. As the newcomers entered, Dumbledore cleared his throat and called the staff meeting to order. "Welcome back to Hogwarts professors. I hope you are all looking forward to what I am confident will be another exciting year."

Before another word could be spoken, Snape interrupted. "Albus, I object to Potter being present for a staff meeting."

"Your objection is noted, Severus. But I find it best to have all staff present at 'staff' meetings, don't you?" He replied. Before giving Snape an opportunity to respond, he continued with the meeting. "Now, please have your textbook selections to Minerva by Friday, so that she can send out the supply lists."

Several people handed pieces of parchment to McGonagall at this. Harry gave it some thought and summoned a parchment and quill. Quickly scribbling a note, he handed it to McGonagall as well.

Dumbledore continued, "I have also reviewed the Head of Houses' choices for fifth-year prefects and have no objections. Minerva will send the badges along with the supply lists this Friday."

"I am very happy to welcome Firenze back to the staff for his first full year." There was scattered applause. "And I am delighted to have found a capable defense professor this year, Harry Potter." Again, more scattered applause, with a few shocked and appalled looks thrown in from Snape and Filch. "Although Mister Potter will be taking several courses during the school-year, he is a full member of the staff and should be treated as such." He said, taking a moment to give a disappointed look to Snape.

The group proceeded to discuss course schedules, the composition of the new class of first years, and placed bets on who would win the house cup this year for the next several hours before Dumbledore decided to adjourn the meeting.

"As always, I would like all of you to arrive one week before the first of September. Our next staff meeting will be the twenty-fifth of August. Thank you for coming."

As the staff stood up, the casual conversations started back up. Several professors including Hagrid and Flitwick approached Harry to congratulate him. After a few minutes, people started to leave the school to go their separate ways. As Harry was about to make an exit, McGonagall approached him.

"Harry, what is the meaning of your textbook selection?"

"That's what I want, Professor. Feel free to run it past Albus if you have any concerns."

"I just might do that." She turned to go, but stopped herself and added "and welcome to the staff Mr. Potter."

Harry smiled at her and added a slight twinkle to his eyes. "Thank you, Professor. I'm looking forward to working with you." He said with a wink. Harry could have sworn he saw McGonagall blush.

Before he left, Harry approached Dumbledore and asked, "Albus, I was wondering if there is an age requirement for an apparition license?"

"Well Harry, I suppose it has always been implied that a wizard cannot receive his apparition license until his seventeenth birthday, when he can legally perform magic outside of school, but I can honestly say I have never seen that in writing."

"Excellent. I'll see you on the twenty-fifth, Albus" and he left the castle and began walking to Hogsmeade.

Snape was waiting just outside the school gates and he did not look happy. "So Potter, did you have to cry and throw a tantrum to get this job like you always do?"

"Actually, _Professor,_" Harry said, finally losing his cool with the potions professor. "There weren't any other _capable _wizards willing to take the position," he added knowing that Snape applied for the job every year.

"You think you're more capable than me, Potter? Prove it" he said drawing his wand. Harry did not respond (having no wand to draw in any case). "Duel me you coward! Expelliarmus!"

The spell hit Harry in the chest, but had no effect. "Trying to disarm an unarmed man, Snape? No wonder Albus keeps you hidden away in the dungeons. One would think you could have learned a few things living at a school and all."

Snape fumed and was obviously getting ready to fire another spell at Harry, who simply smiled and apparated away.

He appeared a moment later at the Ministry of Magic. When he got to the front of the line he said, "I'm here to get an apparition license."

"Name?"

"Harry Potter"

The witch looked startled for a moment before placing a box in front of him. "Place your wand in the box please."

"Um…I haven't got one."

"Very funny. Please place your wand in the box, there is a line of people behind you, you know."

"I told you, I haven't got one. Can I please take my apparition test?"

The witch pressed a small button on her desk and two aurors appeared a moment later. "What's the problem, Victoria?"

She pointed to Harry. "Says he hasn't got a wand."

One of the aurors patted Harry down while the other performed some sort of scanning spell. "He looks clean Vic, go ahead and pass him through." One of them said before turning to Harry. "And I don't think it's a very good idea for a wizard to be out and about without a wand these days. Especially you." And both of the aurors left.

"Wait over there Mr. Potter. An examiner will be with you shortly."

Harry's examiner did arrive shortly and gave him a serious of instructions regarding the test. It was really quite simple, in Harry's opinion, and he passed with flying colors. Just to be on the safe side, Harry informed the examiner of his test apparition that morning and was told that it is quite common for wizards to practice a few times before coming into the test. The Ministry really only frowns on continued violations.

After thanking the examiner, Harry turned to leave and saw Tonks nearly running towards him. "Harry, Director Bones wants to speak with you."

Harry arrived in the office of the head of the department of magical law enforcement a few minutes later. Tonks had been unwilling, or unable to tell him why he was summoned to her offices.

"Hello Director Bones." He said, still unsure of why he was there.

"Harry, come in and have a seat." which he did. "I want to start off by saying you're not in any trouble. I'm merely concerned for you."

"Why is that, Director?"

"Well, in mid-July I understand you made a discovery that you could perform magic this summer, even away from Hogwarts. Since that time, our scanning equipment has registered an enormous amount of magical activity at your home including spells we can't even identify. Several days ago we registered" she paused to look at a document on her desk "one hundred twenty-eight banishing charms over the course of about forty minutes. Then," she continued "I received a message today that you arrived at the Ministry of Magic unarmed. I suppose I am just confused as to how a young man such as you can go from performing magic nearly constantly to walking around London without his wand."

"Director, do you monitor the homes of all wizards and record their magic usage?"

Madame Bones had the good grace to look sheepish. "No Harry, only…select individuals."

"I'll address your concerns on two conditions."

"And those are?"

"Number one is that you have to promise not to reveal what I tell and show you today."

"Agreed"

"Number two is that you stop monitoring my home any more than you do other wizards."

"Those are reasonable requests, Harry. I agree to your terms."

Harry stood up, straightened his robes, and turned back to Director Bones. "When was the last time you had a good duel, Director?"

"It has been years, Harry, but I don't follow. How do you expect to duel me without a wand."

Harry pointed to a teacup on her desk and said "Reducto". The teacup exploded into tiny pieces.

Amelia Bones stood up, drew her wand, and cracked her neck by bobbing it side to side. "You don't know what you're getting yourself into, young man. That was my favorite teacup." She said seriously, but with a grin on her face. "Repello!"

Harry was thrown backwards. Thinking quickly, he cast a softening spell on the wall, "Lentesco!" just before he slammed into it with a force that would have sent him to St. Mungo's absent the spell. "Lucky shot" he said with a smirk before firing his own volley. "Lumos Fulsi" which shot a concentrated beam of light right into the Director's eyes. Then with a sweeping motion of his arm he shouted "Supplanto!" tripping her.

"You're in trouble now Potter. Petrificus Totallus"

"Vellum" summoning a wall to block the spell. "You talk too much, Director. No wonder you have a desk job."

Having the same idea at the same time, both of them yelled "Silencio!", and both spells hit their marks. They both stood, staring at each other for a moment, unsure what to do when Harry broke into a wide grin. He closed his eyes, concentrated for several seconds and whipped his hand towards Director Bones. Ropes shot from his hand and bound her tightly.

After a few more moments, Harry was able to remove the silencing charm from himself, then cast "Finite Incantatum" on the Director. The ropes disappeared and she was again able to speak.

"You know Harry, I was having so much fun I nearly forgot you were dueling without a wand. That's very impressive"

"I haven't even begun to impress you, Director" Harry said with a wink as he opened the door and walked out of her office.

Author's Notes:

I'm glad people enjoyed the dodgeball game. It was really fun to write.

Frozenwands – I see your point with Hermione, but as you saw in the next chapter, she had just read the forward of a book written by Merlin. That combined with the fact that her five best friends had already snapped their wands would probably be enough to convince her in my opinion. I imagined snapping your own wand is a bit like getting a tattoo – its permanent, its forbidden (for most children at least), and if all your friends are doing it you just don't want to be left out.

Warra – I'm trying not to make Luna any more powerful than the other five. I just think she probably sees things that others don't.


	7. Chapter 6: Diagon Alley

Disclaimer: All of the characters in this fanfiction belong to Ms. Rowling. I don't own them and am not making any money off of this story.

Time to Prepare

Chapter 6 – Diagon Alley

Harry arrived in Diagon Alley at 6am on August 22 and walked swiftly into Gringott's. He walked up to the nearest goblin. "I'm Harry Potter, I'd like to be taken to my….Mr. Griphook? When did you start working at the counter?"

The goblin looked up at Harry with an expression of disbelief. "Mr. Potter, I began working at the counter several months ago. And it's just Griphook. How can I help you today?"

"Oh, um…sorry. I was just surprised to see someone I know working at the counter. I need to go to my vault to make a withdrawal."

"Will this be a withdrawal for school expenses?"

"Yes." Harry replied, before adding "Why?"

"Well the purpose of the withdrawal would determine which vault you need to go to, wouldn't it?" He said before flipping through the ledger on his desk, obviously not expecting an answer.

Harry spoke up nonetheless, "What do you mean by that, Griphook?" Again the goblin looked startled at the use of his name. "Did I say something wrong?"

"No." Griphook replied curtly. "Your account has been flagged, Mr. Potter. Please have a seat in the lobby." and he disappeared behind the counter.

A very confused Harry Potter sat down in the bank's waiting area. About ten minutes later, Griphook entered with another, much older goblin. Although it was hard to tell, the second goblin looked like he had just woken up

"Mr. Potter, this is Ragnok."

"Nice to meet you, Ragnok. I'm Harry Potter." he replied, extending his hand.

"I know who you are Mr. Potter," Ragnok replied without taking the proffered hand. The three stood in uncomfortable silence for a few moments. "Please follow me to my office." Ragnok continued as he turned and walked towards one of the doors.

Harry started to follow before noticing that Griphook was walking back towards the counters. "Won't Griphook be joining us?"

"No" Ragnok said as he kept walking.

Harry stopped. "I'm not comfortable following someone I just met to a private office."

"And why is that?"

"I thought you said you knew who I was?" Harry responded, immediately regretting his cheekiness.

Ragnok laughed. "Griphook! Please join Mr. Potter and myself in my offices."

With that, the three of them continued through one of the doors. As they walked down another hallway, Ragnok said something to Griphook in what Harry assumed was Gobbledegook and both goblins laughed, making Harry very uncomfortable.

"What's so funny?" he asked, assuming they were making fun of him.

"Ragnok was just commenting that you are the first wizard he has ever met that was more comfortable with two goblins than one."

Eventually, they reached a door that led to a moderate-sized office connected to a conference room. Ragnok ushered Harry into the conference room and motioned for him to take a seat.

Harry was just taking a seat when Ragnok swiftly moved behind him and had a knife to his throat before he could think of taking any action. "Mr. Potter, one goblin or two, when you are within these walls, you are at our mercy. Had I wanted to do anything…unpleasant, Griphook would not stop me." Ragnok said.

Without moving, Harry responded "I just wanted a witness for when a Gringott's goblin assaulted me with a rubber chicken."

Looking to his hand, Ragnok noticed that he was, in fact, holding a rubber chicken to the boy's throat. Both goblin's laughed uproariously. "Mr. Potter, you truly are something special. Shall we get down to business?"

"Yes please. I still don't know why I'm here. I just came to make a withdrawal."

"I placed a flag on your account to be notified the next time you came in to the bank, though I admit I did not expect you to make any transactions at such an early hour" Ragnok began. "Your financial situation has changed significantly since your last visit to our establishment, Mr. Potter."

"I don't understand." Harry interrupted. "I haven't done anything since the last time I made a withdrawal, how could my financial situation change?"

"You are correct that the vault set aside for your needs while attending Hogwarts has been untouched over the last several years. The Potter Vault has been undisturbed for sometime longer than that" Ragnok said as he shuffled through some papers, finally saying "fifteen years, eleven months to be exact. Your personal vault was similarly dormant until May, when deposits began arriving from Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes. Last week, a deposit was made to your personal account from Hogwarts. It was that deposit that made me take a closer look at your finances, Mr. Potter. It is not often that schools make deposits in students' accounts. Usually it is withdrawals for tuition."

"Oh, that must be my first month's pay. I'll be teaching at Hogwarts this year." Harry responded, still reeling from the information that he had three vaults and that he was receiving deposits from Fred and George.

"I see. Then there is the matter of the Black Vault, which was only recently placed under your name."

"Wait, the Black Vault?" Harry said in disbelief.

"Yes Mr. Potter. Sirius Black left instructions that upon his death or incapacitation, his possessions would pass to you." Ragnok answered. "Which brings us to this meeting. Between all of your vaults, you have become one of our more…prestigious clients, and I felt that it was time that your finances received the personal service we offer to such customers."

"Such as?"

"A goblin will be assigned as your personal account manager. You can conduct all transactions through him. He will provide you with monthly statements of activity in your vaults. Also, I assume that Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes is a business you hold an interest in. Your account manager will provide bookkeeping and auditing services to ensure that your investment is secure."

"Would you be the manager, Ragnok?"

"No Mr. Potter, your account will be a full-time job. I will assign another goblin to that position."

"What about Griphook?" who looked startled at the mention of his name.

"Griphook is a clerk, Mr. Potter. I can provide you with an experienced account manager."

"If it's all the same, I'd prefer that Griphook have the job." Harry responded, not realizing he had just thrust Griphook to the very elite ranks of goblin society.

"Very well. I will work out some details with Griphook. Would you mind returning on the twenty-fourth to finalize the arrangements?"

"That sounds great. But I still need to make a withdrawal today." Ragnok pulled a small bag of coins from underneath the table and placed it in front of Harry. "That should cover your needs until the twenty-fourth. Griphook, please see Mr. Potter out." And Ragnok disappeared out the door of the office.

Harry and Griphook walked back through the corridor to the lobby in silence. When they reached the main doors to the bank, Griphook turned to Harry and said, "You won't regret this, Mr. Potter."

"I'm sure I won't. And call me Harry." He responded before proceeding out the doors.

Harry had a few hours before his friends were scheduled to meet him at Florean Fortescue's ice cream shop so he wandered the streets doing a bit of window-shopping. A few of the shops had started to open and more people began to populate the alley as they did their morning errands. A few times, Harry saw students he recognized from school, though none that he knew by name.

At 10am, Ron and Ginny joined him at the table he found at the ice cream shop. The three friends hugged each other hello and sat down to wait for the rest of their group.

"How have things been over the last couple weeks?" Harry asked.

"Pretty good. Mum almost killed me when she heard I had broken another wand, but you should have seen her face when Ginny and I showed her what you taught us." Ron answered.

Hermione, Luna, and Neville all arrived after that, and the six friends set off to do their shopping. When the group entered Flourish & Blotts, Hermione asked a question that had obviously been burning her up inside.

"Guys, what do you make of the textbook selection for defense this year? What does 'one textbook - student choice' mean?"

Harry answered, "I think it means you get to choose your own textbook." A few of his friends snickered.

"But how can we choose our own textbook? Won't that make it hard to teach if we all have different books?"

"I'm sure the professor will manage." Harry said with a glimmer in his eye.

Hermione pointed at Harry and then at the nearest wall, lifting him off his feet and pinning him against the wall. "You know something, Harry James Potter. Spill it!"

"I was going to tell you guys today anyway, but meet your new defense teacher." Harry said with a smile. "and nice work with that spell Hermione. That was brilliant."

It was three hours before the group left the bookstore, having spent most of that time deciding what book to buy for defense. In the end, most of them bought three or four books for Harry's class instead of the one required and they were on their way. After a brief stop at the apothecary for Hermione, Ginny, and Luna to buy potions supplies for the coming year the group decided to head towards the Leaky Cauldron for a late lunch.

When they were about twenty meters from the Leaky Cauldron, the brick wall opened revealing ten people in black robes and white masks. People on the street began to scream and run away as they saw the dark figures entering the alley, but Harry and his friends stood their ground.

Ron mumbled a few words under his breath, so that only his friends could hear. "Hermione, anti-apparition. Neville, shields. Ginny and Luna, wands."

Hermione and Neville immediately started muttering incantations. As the deatheaters got closer, several of them noticed the group that stood in front of them.

"Awww, wook who it ith! Baby Potter and his wittle fwends!" came a high-pitched, sickening voice. "And they don't even have their wands out. Big mistake boys and girls" she said as she pointed her wand at Harry.

Moments later, Bellatrix Lestrange's wand-arm exploded. Five heads turned to see Neville with a wide grin on his face. Bellatrix's scream tore through Diagon Alley as she writhed on the floor. Most people no doubt assumed it was a deatheater torturing another poor soul.

The remaining nine deatheaters had their wands out and were looking for the source of the curse that just devastated Bellatrix Lestrange when they heard two simultaneous shouts of "Accio wands!" as they were all disarmed at the same time.

A few of the deatheaters tried to apparate with painful results as all they received for their efforts was splitting headaches.

"You guys are pathetic." Harry said as he waved a hand at the cobblestone walkway the deatheaters stood on and said "Liquidus." The group immediately splashed into the walkway which had become the consistency of water. Harry waved his hand again saying "Firmus" turning the street solid again over the deatheaters' heads, leaving no trace of Voldemort's followers in Diagon Alley.

Harry turned back to his friends and saw that a small crowd had gathered behind them, obviously having watched the encounter. Ron whispered, "You better say something before the Daily Prophet renames you the Boy-who-killed in an evening edition, mate."

Harry walked up and stood in front of the crowd. "Everyone, let me start off by saying that I'm not happy about what I did here today. At the same time, I wouldn't be able to live with myself if the deatheaters had succeeded in killing even one innocent person here today and knowing that I could have stopped it." A few people in the crowd nodded.

"I couldn't live with myself if even one of the deatheaters had escaped to take lives some other day when I'm not around, knowing that I had a chance to stop them here and now. I'm going to stop Voldemort and his followers and I hope that each and every one of you is there on that day so that I can buy you a drink and celebrate." Harry finished.

From the back of the crowd, several people started clapping, which quickly spread to the rest of the group assembled at Diagon Alley. An older witch broke away from the mass of people and started walking to the section of the road that now had ten deatheaters buried beneath it. The crowd grew silent as they watched the lone witch approach, her sobs audible to everyone present. She paused and wept at the spot for a moment before straightening herself up and unceremoniously spitting on the ground with a sneer before walking out of the alley and into the Leaky Cauldron.

As Harry and his friends apparated away, they saw several more people walk up to spit on the unmarked grave of ten monsters.

Author's Notes:

This update took a bit longer than previous chapters because I really wasn't able to work over the long weekend.


	8. Chapter 7: The Day After

Disclaimer: All of the characters in this fanfiction belong to Ms. Rowling. I don't own them and am not making any money off of this story.

Time to Prepare

Chapter 7 – The Day After

After leaving Diagon Alley, Harry, Hermione, Neville, and Luna all decided to spend the night at the Burrow. None of the six friends really wanted to be alone, so they settled in the living room and conjured sleeping bags and pillows. Ron was the first to speak.

"That was good, right? I mean, we won didn't we?" But he didn't seem convinced.

"It was the right thing to do, Ron, but that doesn't mean that what we did was 'good'." Luna responded.

"What are you guys talking about?" Harry interjected. "You guys didn't know I was going to kill them."

"I would have if you hadn't, Harry." Ginny said softly. "That's what scares me."

"Me too." Neville added. "And I don't think I would have been so…humane."

"I don't think I could have killed them, but when I put up the anti-apparition ward, I knew that they weren't leaving that alley alive."

Harry asked, "If you could change what we did today, would you?" Everyone shook their heads no. "Then I guess there is nothing more to say on the matter. I feel sick to my stomach, but I'm glad we were able to stop the attack without any casualties. Let's get some sleep guys" and he waved his hand to turn out the lights.

The six friends were woken up the next morning by four very serious-looking adults. Albus Dumbledore, Molly and Arthur Weasley, and a very tired-looking Nymphadora Tonks entered the room and sat down on the various chairs and couches.

Ginny noticed Tonks' condition and asked. "Is something wrong Tonks?"

"No, I've just been up all night taking statements from witnesses in Diagon Alley. Amelia Bones led the investigation herself, you know."

Ron interrupted, "Investigation?"

"You can't honestly believe that ten wizards can disappear beneath the street in Diagon Alley without there being an investigation." Tonks replied.

"How did it go?" Harry asked.

"My part went fine. I didn't have any trouble finding people willing to give accounts of what happened. Kingsley almost had a riot on his hands when he tried to unearth the bodies though. Director Bones had to step in and promise that the Ministry would not disturb the street."

"Do we know the identities of the deatheaters? Other than Bellatrix Lestrange, of course." Hermione asked.

"We do" Dumbledore interjected. "The Ministry identified the attackers by the wands you left at the scene."

"Anyone we know?" Harry asked.

"A few" he replied. "Bellatrix, Rudolphus and Rabastan Lestrange, Nott, Crabbe and Goyle were among the group. I don't think you knew the rest."

Neville looked absolutely giddy to hear that the three people who tortured his parents into insanity were dead.

Harry looked a bit sick, "So three students at Hogwart's lost their fathers yesterday?"

"No Harry, just one. It was not the senior Crabbe and Goyle that participated in the attack yesterday." Dumbledore responded. "The wands were tested and all ten of the wizards and witches were found to have cast numerous unforgivable curses. Director Bones' official determination is that lethal force was fully justified given the circumstances. I just wanted to check on you all this morning to make sure you are alright."

"We talked about it last night, Headmaster. I think we'll be fine." Neville responded.

"My door is always open to all of you should you ever need to talk. I'll be going now. However, Nymphadora needs to get a statement from each of you. I do hope you'll cooperate and she doesn't have to get rough." Dumbledore said with a sparkle in his eye and left the Burrow.

"You may need to get their statements, Tonks, but there is no reason you can't do it over breakfast. The children haven't eaten since yesterday morning." And Molly ushered the group into the kitchen and began putting stacks of bacon, pancakes, toast, sausage, and eggs on the table for them.

As the famished group stuffed their faces, they began to describe the events of the previous day. Tonks jumped in at certain points to ask for clarification.

"And who exactly cast the anti-apparation field?"

"I did" Hermione answered.

"Wow, that was some piece of work. It took two curse-breakers several hours to bring it down. Lets see…oh, a few of the witnesses mentioned that the six of you never drew wands on the attackers. That can't be right though. Where were your wands during the encounter?"

"Oh, they were back at Harry's place, I assume" Luna answered.

"We don't exactly have wands anymore." Ginny clarified, "Harry made us snap them a few weeks ago."

Harry took offense. "Hey! I didn't make anyone do anything. You seemed pretty willing at the time." at which Ginny flung a spoonful of eggs at the boy-who-lived.

The ensuing food-fight was interrupted by a gasp from Molly Weasley as she looked outside and quickly flung open the kitchen window. Wave after wave of owls few in the Burrow and dropped letters and packages on the table. By the time the air cleared and all the owls were gone, the table had a very large stack of mail. Everyone in the room stared at the pile, unsure what to do. Hermione spotted a letter with her name on it and pulled it out of the stack, reading it aloud for everyone to hear.

_Dear Ms. Granger, _

_I just wanted to write and thank you for standing up for muggle-born witches everywhere. I am so glad to know you and your friends have the strength to do what is right. _

_Sincerely,_

_Emma O'Malley_

With the silence broken, everyone dove into the pile, reading some letters aloud, and keeping others to themselves, sometimes crying, sometimes laughing.

"Guys! Guys! Listen to this one!" Ron said and began to read.

_Mr. Weasley,_

_We at Quality Quidditch Supplies would like to thank you and your friends for your valiant defense of Diagon Alley. As a token of our appreciation, please accept a Nimbus 3000 – Keeper Edition which we have reserved in your name to be picked up at your earliest convenience. We wish you luck in your upcoming season._

_Sincerely,_

_QQS_

"And look, Harry and Ginny got letters too!" Ron said with a huge grin on his face.

Tonks excused herself shortly thereafter, deciding that she had gotten enough information from the group to file her report. The letter-opening continued for several hours before they had gotten through all of the mail.

"Wow," Neville said as he leaned back in his chair. "Who knew word traveled so fast?"

"Well everyone," Harry said as he stood up, "I have a Nimbus 3000 – Seeker Edition to pick up and we never did make it to the stationery store or the Magical Menagerie yesterday. Who's up for another Diagon Alley trip?"

And with that, the six friends got ready for their second trip to Diagon Alley in as many days. When they arrived at the alley, they noticed that there were a lot more people shopping and walking the street than there were the day before. They also noticed that, despite the crowded streets, people seemed to be avoiding the site of yesterday's battle, although occasionally someone passing by would sneer at the spot and spit on the ground.

As the group entered Quality Quidditch Supplies, they were spotted by a young clerk who looked like she had just seen a ghost. She immediately ran into a back room and returned dragging an older wizard wearing goggles and dragonhide gloves. When the wizard saw Harry and his group, his eyes immediately lit up.

"Aah, welcome to my store ladies and gentlemen! I take it you received my letters?"

"We did, and your gift is very generous Mr.?" Ron asked.

"Oh, I'm sorry," the wizard said taking off his gloves and offering his hand. "Broadmoor, Karl Broadmoor. It's a real pleasure to meet you all. Let me just go into the storeroom and get your brooms." and he disappeared for a few moments returning with three long packages. "I really hope you enjoy them. They are the very latest models."

"I really can't wait to try them out. Thank you so much." Ginny replied.

"It's my pleasure. Hey, do you mind if I get a picture of the six of you standing in my store? I'd love to hang it behind the cash register."

The group gathered around the owner while the clerk snapped a photograph and then headed outside. As they walked out of the store, however, they saw a crowd of people running down the street.

"Oh no, not again." Harry sighed, and the friends ran in the direction the people came from. However, although several people ran past them, they didn't see any signs of an attack. Harry grabbed a young wizard as he passed by. "Hey, what's going on?"

"Another deatheater attack!" the wizard replied.

"Where?" Hermione said, looking in the direction he came from.

"I'm on my way there now, come on!" He said and continued running in his original direction.

Confused, Harry and his friends followed and were shocked by what they found when they arrived at the site of the attack. A huge crowd of people were standing around a group of twenty deatheaters. Every one of the deatheaters was tied up and had about fifteen wands pointed at him. It also appeared that the crowd had liberally used bludgeoning spells before tying up the attackers. Each of them was badly bruised and unconscious.

"I think we should go. This is their victory, not ours." Luna said before turning and walking towards the stationery store followed by the other five.

The party that the group left behind lasted well into the night as the regular citizens of the wizarding world celebrated their victory over Voldemort's forces. In fact, Voldemort's name was said quite a few times that night, and very few people flinched anymore at hearing it.

Author's Notes:

Next chapter will be Harry's meeting with Griphook. As to why Harry didn't ask more questions at his first meeting, he was in a bit of shock and had a lot of information to absorb. Now that he's had a few days to think about it, he'll be looking for answers.


	9. Chapter 8: Back to Gringotts

Disclaimer: All of the characters in this fanfiction belong to Ms. Rowling. I don't own them and am not making any money off of this story.

Time to Prepare

Chapter 8 – Back to Gringotts

Harry woke up on August 24 feeling very anxious. A lot had happened in the past several days to keep his mind off of his meeting at Gringotts, but today he was meeting with his new financial manager. Harry had to face the fact that he knew next to nothing about his finances and that was going to change today.

After showering and getting dressed, Harry decided to eat some breakfast at the Leaky Cauldron before heading to Gringotts. After picking up a copy of the daily prophet, Harry sat down and ordered a light breakfast. The headline caught Harry's eye immediately.

_Twenty Deatheaters Captured and Executed_

_In the second attack in as many days, Voldemort's forces arrived at Diagon Alley yesterday afternoon only to be greeted by a mob of very angry shoppers. Eyewitness Lavender Brown described the scene: _

"_I was shopping with a few of my friends from school when a bunch of deatheaters showed up out of nowhere. There were so many people in the street that there was really nowhere for us to go, so we drew our wands and noticed that just about everyone else on the street did the same thing. Then from my left I heard a man say "everbero" and a spell hit one of the deatheaters in the front and it looked like it broke the censored's leg in a few places. That was all it took for a whole lot of people to join in from the crowd. I think most people used that same spell, which looked like a bludgeoning hex, but not one that I've learned. But anyway, people just started pummeling the deatheaters with spells. As they went down, my friends and I started tying them up and summoning their wands, but the whole fight was over in probably five minutes."_

_Aurors, who arrived at the scene several minutes later, took the twenty deatheaters into custody. According to DMLE sources, they were questioned under veritaserum and convicted of multiple counts of murder and torture. DMLE Director Amelia Bones announced that all of the attackers were executed at 10pm, adding "Given the history of deatheaters escaping custody despite our best efforts to keep them behind bars and away from the general populace, the Ministry has approved a zero-tolerance policy. Any wizard or witch found to serve Voldemort through questioning under veritaserum will be immediately executed."_

_Reactions to the new policy from the public have been overwhelmingly favorable and the Minister of Magic's approval rating has recovered to new highs virtually overnight._

Harry finished the article as his breakfast arrived and couldn't help smiling. It seemed like things were finally changing for the better in the wizarding world. After eating, Harry walked through Diagon Alley towards Gringotts. As he walked, various people said hello and waved not only to him, but to each other. It amazed him how much a few days could change the entire outlook of the wizarding population of England.

Harry entered Gingotts and walked up to a counter. "Hi, I'm Harry Potter. I'm here to meet with Griphook. Is he available?"

"Follow me," the goblin behind the counter said before walking off towards a large door. Harry couldn't help thinking that goblins weren't very likely to engage in pleasantries, which was fine with him. After a short walk they arrived at a modest office door, which opened to reveal Griphook sitting behind a desk pouring over a ledger.

"Ah, Mr. Potter. I mean Harry. Please come in and have a seat." Griphook greeted him. "I've spend the last two days familiarizing myself with your assets and accounts."

"That's good, because I would like to 'familiarize' myself with my assets and accounts also. I have no idea what I have, Griphook. I only knew about my school account until two days ago."

The goblin looked shocked. "I'm surprised that your previous advisors never informed you, Harry. As the only Potter heir, you had a very respectable net worth even before you inherited the Black family assets."

"So you know exactly what is in all of my vaults?"

"Mor or less. That's my job now." Griphook answered.

"Lets start with my school vault. The first time I saw it, it looked like a fortune. How much is in there?"

Griphook flipped through the ledger on his desk. "That vault was opened on August 10, 1980 with a total sum of 200,000 galleons shortly after your birth. The first withdrawal from the vault occurred on your eleventh birthday, a deduction of five hundred galleons for Hogwart's tuition. Several minor withdrawals and successive years' tuitions have brought the amount in the vault to 196,322 galleons."

Harry listened to the accounting and realized he had no idea how much that was. "Griphook, what is the pound/galleon exchange rate?"

"Today, one galleon can be exchanged for 84.3 pounds. 86.5 pounds can be exchanged for one galleon. Did you want to arrange an exchange?"

"Oh, no, I was just curious." Harry answered as he tried to do the math in his head. That exchange rate sounded ludicrous. It would mean that Harry's school fund was worth over fifteen million pounds. He couldn't help wondering how he could possibly need that much for school. "Were there any instructions given to Gringotts when the account was opened?"

"Yes" Griphook replied rifling through some papers. "The instructions were that the account could not be accessed until your eleventh birthday and that no more than one seventh of the funds in the vault could be withdrawn in your eleventh year. No more than two sevenths of the funds could be withdrawn in your eleventh and twelfth years, cumulative. Three sevenths in your eleventh through thirteenth years…you get the picture. As you are entering your sixth year and your spending until this year has been modest, you have approximately 168,000 galleons that can be withdrawn."

"I also have a personal account, right? How much is in that?"

"Your personal account is a bit more modest. There were a few deposits made at your birth, presents I would guess. A few more were made around your first birthday. Then there was no activity until earlier this year when you started receiving deposits from Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes. A deposit of two hundred galleons was made last week from Hogwarts. Your total balance is currently 635 galleons."

"Are there any restrictions on that vault?"

"No, Harry, that vault is and always has been under your exclusive control. The Potter and Black vaults, however, are heavily restricted until your next birthday."

"How much is in those vaults?"

"It is difficult to place a monetary value on those particular vaults. There is a substantial amount of cash present in the vaults, approximately 32,000,000 galleons combined." Harry actually fell out of his chair at that point, but Griphook continued, "however both vaults hold a large number of valuable items, books, and property deeds which most likely would be valued at significantly more than the cash holdings if an appraisal were performed."

"Property deeds?" Harry asked after picking himself off the floor and recovering a bit.

"Oh yes, those families have substantial real estate holdings. In London alone you have the Black townhome at #12 Grimmauld Place, and the Potter townhome in Camden. Potter Manse is located just outside of London. The Black Estate is in Wales. You also have an undeveloped property in Godric's Hollow, and the Potter ancestral castle in the Isle of Skye. I believe that's everything in Great Britain."

"There is more outside of Great Britain?" Harry asked in disbelief.

"Oh yes, lets see" Griphook said turning a page in the ledger. "It is quite fashionable for wizarding families to purchase property in new up-and-coming locales. The Blacks and Potters seemed to participate in every hot-spot imaginable. You have islands in the Caribbean that were purchased throughout the 1300s. All of them are located a ways south of Bermuda, but don't worry, they have very powerful muggle-repelling and confusing charms on them. It might be a coincidence, but the Black and Potter holdings in that area are actually next to each other, making a continuous chain of seven islands. I can go on, if you like, but you also have holdings in Australia, the South Pacific, America, Antarctica, Egypt, Romania, Iceland, Spain, South Africa, and India."

"When was the last time anyone went to those properties?"

"That type of information is not recorded in Gringott's records."

"Could you arrange to visit each property and make an assessment of its condition? I'm worried that I've let my family's properties fall into disrepair and I want to fix this as soon as possible."

"I'll make arrangements to do so immediately, Harry. And may I also point out that repair and upkeep expenses for these properties may be paid for from the respective family vaults."

"Oh, and please hire some house-elves to take care of the properties." Harry added.

"I don't think I can do that Harry, but I can give you information on where you might be able to purchase a suitable number of house-elves."

Harry yelled "No!" startling Griphook. "I'm sorry. Maybe I wasn't clear. I don't want to purchase house-elves. I want to hire them. If I have to buy them, they should be immediately set free and paid a wage to work for me. There is a house-elf named Dobby at Hogwarts that could probably help find a good staff. Do you think you can do that?"

Griphook looked like Harry had asked him to cut off a hand. "If that is what you want, Harry, I believe I can make it happen. The other things in the vaults are a variety of books and magical items and clothing. I can take you to the vaults if you would like to see the items."

"Thank you, but I don't think I have the energy to do that. Could you have some other Gringotts employees go through and make a list of all of the books and items. I'd like to have a record."

"You want me to have goblins go into your vault to record its contents?" Griphook asked.

"Yes, is that a problem?"

"No, I just don't think it has ever happened before. I'll take care of it." Griphook looked down at his notes and read back, "In summary, you've asked me to visit each of your properties and prepare an assessment of their condition. I will also look into 'hiring' house-elves to care for your holdings. Lastly, I will have Gringott's catalogue the various items and texts in the Potter and Black vaults. Is there anything else?"

Harry thought for a moment, and replied "Instead of preparing an assessment of the properties' condition, please just arrange for any necessary repairs to be made. Pay for it from the appropriate family vault. Go ahead and hire the house-elves, you don't have to get my approval for any transactions that are less than, let's say two thousand galleons."

Griphook scribbled down the additional instructions. "Anything else?"

"Yes actually," Harry conjured a piece of parchment and enchanted it to show a map of Ottery St. Catchpole. "I'd like you to purchase as much of the property in this area as possible," he said shading in a rather large area around the Burrow. "Use my school funds to make the purchases."

"Anything else, Harry?"

"I'm not sure, to be honest. What do you think?" Harry almost laughed as Griphook looked shocked for probably the fifth time during the meeting.

"I think that it is a crime to have as much money as you do sitting in a vault stagnant for hundreds of years." Griphook blurted out looking like he immediately regretted saying so.

"You're absolutely right. Let's meet again in a month or so. I'd like to hear some more specific ideas on how to fix that. I think I should probably be going. This has been a lot of information to absorb today." Harry said as he stood up to go and extended his hand to the goblin.

Griphook stared at Harry's hand for a moment before finally grasping it firmly and shaking it. "It was a pleasure, Harry. I look forward to seeing you in a month." He said in a somewhat strained way.

Shortly after Harry left the building, a very agitated Griphook ran to Ragnok's offices to describe the very peculiar meeting he had just had. Ragnok, in turn, called an emergency meeting of the highest ranks of goblin society. Two hours later, Ragnok and Griphook stood before thirty-three very old-looking goblins assembled in the largest conference room at Gringotts.

Ragnok cleared his throat, "I called you all here because we have much to discuss today. Griphook, who was recently chosen by Harry Potter as the personal account manager for the Potter and Black lines," there was scattered murmuring throughout the room at this revelation, "had a meeting with the boy just this morning. Please tell the whole group what happened at this meeting, Griphook."

"As is typical of account managers, I prepared a ledger showing transactions and account balances for all of Mr. Potters vaults prior to our meeting this morning. While discussing the various assets held in the vaults, Mr. Potter, or Harry as he has asked me to call him, asked me to perform duties that are…not typically asked of Gringotts employees." Griphook began. "Beginning tomorrow, I will be visiting Mr. Potter's extensive real property holdings and arranging for necessary repairs."

One of the assembled goblins interrupted, "What do you mean 'arranging for necessary repairs'? He can't expect Gringotts to pay for the upkeep on his property!" There was a chorus of agreement at that statement.

"No, he instructed me to pay for the repairs from his family vaults and that I didn't need his approval for any transactions less than two thousand galleons."

The assembled group whispered amongst themselves for a while before Griphook continued. "Mr. Potter also asked that I hire a staff of house-elves to care for his properties."

Another goblin spoke up at this point, "Gringotts does not participate in the enslavement of any magical race! That is an outrage!"

Griphook clarified, "No, you don't understand. Mr. Potter did not want to purchase the elves. He asked me to hire them, instructing me to purchase elves if necessary, but to set them free and pay them a wage to work for him."

This set the room in an uproar. Ragnok stepped in to calm down the assembly. "Please, let Griphook continue, there is more."

"Mr. Potter also asked that I have a team of goblins enter his vaults to catalog his holdings of magical items and books."

"Goblins do not enter the vaults!" one of the assembly spoke up.

"Only because the wizards would not stand for it!" another replied.

"He is setting us up!" A third said, "He will accuse the goblins of stealing his precious heirlooms."

Ragnok stepped in at this point, "I do not believe that is the case, but please let Griphook continue. He is not done."

Griphook braced himself for what he knew would be the biggest bombshell, "At the end of our meeting, Mr. Potter asked me if I had any other thoughts on his finances. I responded that I thought it was criminal to have such a large sum of money sitting untouched for hundreds of years." After letting the murmuring die down, Griphook added "He agreed and asked to meet with me again in a month's time to provide suggestions on how the money could be used."

"Tell them the rest, Griphook." Ragnok said sternly.

"At the end of the meeting, Mr. Potter offered me his hand." Several of the goblins looked disgusted until he added, "I shook it."

The room exploded in shouts of "Disgrace!" and "Unforgiveable!" from several of the assembled goblins while others merely looked thoughtful. Ragnok deftly plucked a dagger out of the air before it struck Griphook between the eyes.

"Everyone sit and calm down!" Ragnok nearly screamed to be heard over the uproar. "As I said, we have much to discuss."

Author's Notes:

Special thanks to Shadowed Rains for pointing out the month error of the Diagon Alley trip, which of course occurred on August 22, not September 22 as originally reported. That's what I get for letting my mind wander while I chronicle Harry's misadventures. The chapter has been updated.


	10. Chapter 9: Home to Hogwarts

Disclaimer: All of the characters in this fanfiction belong to Ms. Rowling. I don't own them and am not making any money off of this story.

Time to Prepare

Chapter 9 – Home to Hogwarts

Early in the morning on August 25, Harry appeared near the shrieking shack with a much softer pop than his last visit to Hogsmeade, which made him smile as he walked towards his home for nine months of the year. His smile was quickly erased, however, as he approached the gates to the school at the same time as Severus Snape.

"Do you TRY to arrive at the same time as me, or am I just that unlucky?" Harry said more to himself than Snape as he just kept walking towards the school with his trunk in his pocket.

"Don't flatter yourself, Potter. Although you seem to believe otherwise, the world and I do not revolve around you." Snape said with a sneer. "As to whether you are unlucky, I believe that has been proven untrue time and time again, much to my dismay."

"Yes, yes, you always say that, and yet every time I turn around, there you are." Harry replied, still walking away from Snape. "I'm starting to think you have a bit of a crush on me, Professor."

"Diffindo."

Not wanting to show the extent of his powers, Harry simply ducked the cutting curse. However, the curse did catch part of his hair that stood up on top of his head. "Oh Professor, if you wanted a lock of my hair, you only had to ask. Don't tell anyone I let you have it though. People will get extremely jealous and there's only so much of me to go around."

This left a Snape so angry that he could not even choose what spell to kill Harry with, giving Harry plenty of time to walk up to school.

Albus Dumbledore was waiting at the main doors as Harry approached. "Ah, Harry. So glad to see you made it today. And nearly intact, as well! Excellent!"

"It never ceases to amaze me how little escapes your attention, Albus. Someday you must tell me your secret."

"Sharing secrets, are we? I look forward to that conversation with great anticipation."

Harry laughed. "I think that I would be more than willing to part with a few of my secrets for access to that particular knowledge. Where can I get settled in?"

"Ah, your quarters are next to Minerva's in Griffindor Tower. As for your classroom and office, I'll let you choose those. I believe your knowledge of the unused portions of this castle may even exceed mine. Feel free to make any…renovations…that you feel are necessary. We will be holding a staff meeting at dinner tonight in the Great Hall at 7pm."

"Thank you, Albus, I will see you then." Harry replied before making his way to Griffindor Tower and trying to think of a good place for his classroom.

A few hours later, Harry found himself standing in front of the room he decided on. He took a deep breath and walked through the door. "Hello Myrtle, it's so nice to see you again."

The young ghost immediately turned around, shocked at Harry's presence. "What are you doing here? There aren't supposed to be students around here right now."

"Oh, I'm not really a student anymore, Myrtle. I teach here now." Harry responded. "Can I ask you something?"

Myrtle looked surprised. "Why would you want to ask me something? I'm just Moaning Myrtle, the pesky toilet ghost."

"Well, I'm trying to decide where to hold my classes, and I was thinking that it would be really nice to have them here, actually."

They normally morose ghost actually laughed, "You can't have classes in a girl's bathroom. You aren't even supposed to be here."

"Well, I was hoping to make a few renovations before holding classes, and I was wondering if you'd mind that. I would keep your stall exactly as it is, of course, and I could really use your help in the class occasionally if you wouldn't mind doing me a favor."

"Who put you up to this?" Myrtle wailed, "Why are you being nice to me? No one is ever nice to me."

"Maybe if they got to know you better, they'd be nicer. We could start by holding my classes here so people can get to know you."

Between sobs, Myrtle choked out "And you'd leave my stall as it is? Just change everything else?"

Harry thought for a moment, "Why don't I show you what I had in mind and we can work on it together?"

At the same time, Severus Snape was ranting in the Headmaster's office.

"This is ridiculous, Albus. He's an immature child and cannot possibly provide the students with the education they need."

"And as I've told you several times already, Severus, the OWL and NEWT scores for Harry's students last year were the highest I've ever seen. I have complete confidence in his ability to teach our students in this subject. Perhaps if you tried speaking to him as a colleague rather than as a vindictive authority figure you might learn a few things yourself."

"Don't insult me, Albus. Though if the opportunity arises, I might teach him a thing or two."

"I strongly advise against that, but you are a grown wizard, and I will let you make your own decisions on the matter. I think this meeting is over Serverus."

The potions master stormed out of the office, slamming the door behind him. He was not in any better a mood when he arrived at the Great Hall for dinner much later that day. Hid disposition also did not improve when he walked in to find Albus Dumbledore and Harry Potter already there and merrily chatting at the table.

"Ah, Severus. Please come join us. We were just discussing the finer points of magical theory through the ages."

"I hardly think that Potter could have anything to add to that conversation, Albus." Snape said coldly.

Harry pushed his chair away from the table and stood up. "That's IT! I've had it with the insults, Snape. They end right here and now."

"Or what Potter? You'll sic your fan club on me?

"I don't need anyone else to deal with someone as…limited…as you, Snape."

"How dare you, you insolent brat." Snape said as he pulled his wand. "Arm yourself, Potter. It's time you learned what a real professor can do."

"Don't do something you'll regret, Snape" Harry said as he put some distance between himself and the angry professor. He noticed Dumbledore had likewise backed away from both of them, but was doing nothing.

"I hardly think I'll regret spilling your blood all over this hall, Potter"

Harry noticed that at this point the rest of the professors had entered and were gathered at the doors to the hall.

Suddenly, Snape yelled "Reducto!"

Thinking quickly, Harry held out his hand and softly said "Speculum" summoning a shimmering, mirror-like surface that reflected the spell back towards Snape.

Snape was unprepared for the return of his own spell, which hit him in his left arm causing quite a mess in the Great Hall. Regaining his composure, Snape again leveled his wand at Harry and screamed "Caput Abrumpo!". Several of the bystanders nearby gasped and even Harry was surprised by what he recognized as the decapitation hex.

Harry responded calmly, saying "Vallum" in a near-whisper, causing a stury, wall of stone to appear in front of him, blocking the spell. Immediately after summoning the wall, Harry said "Contego." The other staff members who had started angrily approaching Severus Snape when he cast the decapitation hex were stopped immediately by an invisible shield.

After several reducto curses from Snape, the two rivals again stood facing each other. Harry couldn't hear much over the shouts from the other Professors who were not happy with being kept at a distance. As he saw Severus Snape raise his wand towards him again he decided to try a new spell he had been thinking of. He closed his eyes and practically shouted "Karma Reverti!"

Harry heard the collective group of assembled staff scream and gasp, but didn't realize the reason until he saw a green light envelop Severus Snape before the enraged professor slumped to the ground.

Madam Pomfrey rushed up to Snape and ran a diagnostic spell Harry recognized from his book on the healing arts. "He's dead, Albus."

For the first time in a very long time, Albus Dumbledore stood looking at his staff and realized he had no idea what was going on. He strode quickly up to Harry Potter who looked even more confused than he felt. "Harry, what was that spell you cast?"

"I didn't mean to kill him, Albus. That's not what the spell was supposed to do. I'm so sorry." He said before running out of the hall before Dumbledore could stop him.

"Tonight's staff meeting will be cancelled for obvious reasons. Minerva, please go to Mr. Potter's quarters and let him know that he is not at fault for what happened here. I would, however, very much like to speak with him as soon as he is able." McGonagall turned and walked very swiftly from the room.

Professor Flitwick turned to Dumbledore and asked the question on everyone's mind. "Albus, did Harry Potter just deflect a killing curse?"

Author's Notes:

Thank you all for the reviews. I really do appreciate them. I'd also love to hear any constructive criticism you have.


	11. Chapter 10: Repercussions

Disclaimer: All of the characters in this fanfiction belong to Ms. Rowling. I don't own them and am not making any money off of this story.

Time to Prepare

Chapter 10 – Repercussions

Harry ran all the way back to Griffindor Tower to his quarters and threw himself on his couch. He started replaying the entire fight in his head trying to figure out what went wrong. A few minutes later he heard a knock at his door. "Come in."

Minerva McGonagall slowly opened the door and entered the room. "Harry, are you alright? You left the hall so suddenly. I think Poppy is going to be beating down your door shortly so that she can check you for injury."

"I'm fine, Professor."

"Call me Minerva" she interrupted.

"I just don't understand what happened. The spell I cast wasn't supposed to kill him. It really wasn't." At that moment there was another knock at Harry's door. Harry yelled "Come in!" and Albus Dumbledore and Poppy Pomfrey entered his quarters. Harry opened his mouth to start apologizing again but was stopped by Dumbledore.

"Harry, before you speak again I want to show you tonight's events from my point of view." Dumbledore said before enlarging a pensieve he pulled out of his pocket and placing a memory into the basin. "After you, Harry."

Harry walked up to the pensieve and lowered his face to the contents, tumbling into Dumbledore's memory. Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Pomfrey appeared next to him shortly thereafter as he began watching the duel with Snape. Harry was actually surprised at how bloodthirsty his former potions professor looked in the memory.

As the end of the duel neared, the memory-Harry's eyes closed and he shouted "Karma Reverti!"

At the same time, memory-Snape cast his spell, which Harry heard quite clearly in Dumbledore's memory. "Avada Kedavra!"

As the killing curse approached memory-Harry, the air around him became somewhat misty and the curse seemed to dissipate. A moment later, memory-Snape was enveloped in a green light and slumped to the ground, after which Harry found himself back in his rooms with the others.

"Wow. I guess the spell worked." Harry said breathlessly, having just realized how close he had come to death.

"What, exactly, was that spell, Harry? I've never heard of Karma Reverti." McGonagall asked.

"It's a spell I've been thinking about for a while actually. When I was reading Mer…a book on magical theory, I started thinking about how all magic is really the same, and that only the intent of the caster makes the magic do light or dark things. It's hard to put into words really…Karma Reverti is really more about feelings. Basically it takes that intent back out of the magic and returns it to the caster."

"Harry, no one has ever been able to deflect a killing curse before. This is remarkable." Madam Pomfrey said, almost giddy at the new discovery.

"I didn't deflect the curse though. Snape's curse dissipated. I wouldn't really want to test my theories, but another person could cast the killing curse into a Karma Reverti field and be just fine."

McGonagall interjected, "How would the same curse have different results?"

"Well, imagine a situation where you're using the killing curse to protect someone else. If a deatheater were attacking a small child and I cast the killing curse to stop him, the intent behind the spell would be completely different. I don't think the Karma Reverti spell would hurt me in that case." Harry paused for a moment. "Although I doubt a deatheater could even cast the spell. Their intent probably wouldn't be right."

Dumbledore looked like Christmas had come early. "Were you still a student I would award you enough points to win the House Cup based solely on today's events, Harry. However, as a professor, I'm afraid you will have to settle for my humble gratitude. Now," he said standing up "if you'll excuse me, I believe I need to find a new potions professor within the next six days."

McGonagall and Pomfrey followed the Headmaster out and Harry slumped back. A rumbling in his stomach drew his attention back to the fact that he had skipped lunch while working in his classroom and his duel with Snape had interrupted dinner. Not feeling much like making his own dinner, Harry peeled himself off of the couch and made his way down to the Hogwarts' kitchens, hoping that the house elves were still working over the summer.

After tickling the pear, Harry walked in to the kitchens to find quite a few elves busily cooking and cleaning. Harry approached the first one he saw. "Excuse me, is Dobby around this evening?"

The tiny elf immediately ran off and Dobby appeared a few moments later. "Harry Potter, sir! Dobby is so glad to be seeing you."

"Hi Dobby, it's really good to see you too. I missed dinner tonight, do you think I could get some food?"

Dobby turned around and barked a few orders to the other house elves. Within a few moments, they had assembled a very nice dinner of chicken soup, a roast beef sandwich, and a piece of chocolate cake. "Thank you all, this looks really great." Harry said to the elves who had brought the food. "Dobby, would you like to join me? I don't particularly want to eat alone tonight."

Dobby sat down across the table from Harry and asked "How is your first day as Professor Harry?"

"Well, it started off pretty well. I moved into my new rooms and started getting my classroom set up, but then right before dinner I got in a fight with Snape." Harry continued to eat and tell Dobby all about the fight with Snape, and that the least favorite teacher at Hogwarts was now dead.

"Professor Snape was a very bad wizard, Harry Potter. He should not have cast that spell at you."

"I know, but it still feels weird. But anyway, how are things going for you Dobby?"

"Things is being good. Dumbledore is a great wizard. He pays Dobby well and Dobby likes the work here." Harry looked a little disappointed. "Did Dobby say something wrong?"

"Well, I was actually hoping you'd be willing to work for me, Dobby. I need someone to take care of all of my homes and oversee the other house elves I'm going to be hiring. I was hoping…" but before Harry could continue, he was bowled over by Dobby, who proceeded to jump up and down on top of him.

"Dobby would love to work for the great Harry Potter. When can Dobby start?"

Harry laughed. "That's great Dobby, I'm so happy you're going to work for me. I'll pay you double what Hogwarts does and give you four weeks of vacation every year. How does that sound?"

"Dobby would work for Harry Potter for free!"

"That won't be necessary. I'd also really appreciate your help finding more house elves to work for me. I don't want to own them. I want them to be free like you. Could you work with Griphook at Gringott's to do that?"

"Of course, Harry Potter, sir. Dobby will do that immediately!" and he disappeared.

Harry laughed again at the elf's enthusiasm before heading back to his rooms get some sleep.

That night, for the first time in months, Harry woke up due to a throbbing pain in his scar. Voldemort was very, very unhappy. Deciding it was best to let Dumbledore know about the pain sooner than later, Harry threw on some clothes and walked to the Headmaster's office. To his surprise, the gargoyle was already moved aside and Harry was able to walk up the spiral staircase without having to guess passwords for several minutes. When he reached the top of the stairs, the door opened before he even knocked.

"I take it you were expecting me, Albus?"

"I was, actually, Harry. Lemon drop?"

"No thank you. I just wanted to come let you know that Voldemort is very unhappy. For lack of a better word, I think he is throwing an absolute temper tantrum."

"Ah yes, I would expect that tonight. I believe he has just realized that he no longer has a spy among the staff of Hogwarts. Quite a loss for him considering how much information Severus had passed to him over the last several years."

"Are you telling me Snape has been working for Voldemort all this time?"

"In a sense, Severus was working for both Voldemort and I. Unfortunately, he was only willingly working for Voldemort. You see, as gifted as Severus was at occlumency, I happen to be even more gifted with legilimency. I had little problems obtaining information on Voldemort's actions from Severus and altering his memories of my own activities."

"How could you let him teach here though? He could have killed me, or other students for that matter."

"Through the end of your fourth year, Harry, he really had no reason to harm you. Doing so would have meant losing his job, and I assure you that despite his attitude towards teaching, Severus Snape had little left in this world outside of Hogwarts before Voldemort's return. Last year, things did change somewhat with Voldemort's return. However, Severus had specific instructions not to harm you in any way until the entire prophecy was known. Had I thought you were in any real danger, I would have removed Severus from the school myself."

"Having him casting the killing curse at me isn't any 'real danger'?" Harry asked getting somewhat angry at this point.

"Yes, things got far out of hand today, and I want to apologize for that. I had no idea that Severus' hatred of you went beyond his fear of Voldemort. Had he succeeded in killing you, Voldemort would have most certainly killed Severus as well."

"Some consolation that would have been, seeing as how I would have been dead as well."

"As I said, I'm truly sorry for my oversight. I hope you'll forgive me." Dumbledore said seriously.

"Of course, Albus. Today has just been really difficult. To find out that I've had a deatheater for a teacher for five years is just icing on the cake."

"Now that the apologies are out of the way, I wanted to ask you if you know anything about the most peculiar resignation I have ever received." Albus said opening a drawer and pulling out a pair of mismatched socks. "Today one of Hogwart's house elves presented me with clothes." he finished with a twinkle in his eye.

Author's Notes:

A few responses to reviews:

Lady Azar – You and all of the readers of this fiction are welcome to use the spells I create. 90 of them are pretty direct Latin translations. Specifically, Caput Abrumpo translates to "head sever". In any case, using my spells is just saving you a few minutes with an English/Latin dictionary, so knock yourself out.

Dogbertcarroll and Shadowed Rains – I know the death of Severus Snape was a bit sudden, but it is necessary for a couple reasons – 1) Someone had to be on the receiving end of Harry's new spell, and 2) Snape is far too antagonistic towards Harry. My Harry just doesn't put up with that #$&.


	12. Chapter 11: September First

Disclaimer: All of the characters in this fanfiction belong to Ms. Rowling. I don't own them and am not making any money off of this story.

Time to Prepare

Chapter 11 – September First

The week before the start of term passed quickly. Between staff meetings, preparing his office and classroom, creating lesson plans for the first week of school, and overseeing his personal finances, Harry hardly had time to sleep. He awoke on September 1, however, with a smile on his face. Today all of his friends would be arriving at the castle. He had finished his classroom and office the day before, so Harry decided to take a brief trip to Gringotts to check on how things were going with his financial manager.

After apparating behind the leaky cauldron, Harry opened the wall to Diagon Alley and strode confidently through the wizarding shopping district towards Gringotts. He was happy to see that the friendly atmosphere had been sustained as wizards and witches greeted each other and chatted happily at the various benches along the alley. As he walked, Harry looked at his watch and realized that his friends were probably frantically packing their trunks getting ready for the train trip to Hogwarts. 'Being a professor certainly has its advantages' he thought to himself, being very glad that he could simply apparate to Hogsmeade.

Immediately upon entering Gringotts, several goblin guards left their posts and walked on either side of Harry as he approached the counter. Before he had a chance to speak the goblin at the counter stood up and said, "Right this way Mr. Potter. Griphook is waiting to see you."

"He's waiting? He didn't even know I was coming this morning?"

"He was alerted the moment you entered the building, Mr. Potter."

Harry was escorted down a hallway he had never been down before to a set of large double-doors. The guards that were escorting him moved forward to open the doors allowing him to enter. Harry entered leaving the three goblins behind, but noticing the guards stayed outside on either side of the doors. The room appeared to be a waiting room, with four plush couches on which a variety of wizards and house-elves were currently sitting. On the opposite side of the room, a goblin sat at a desk next to another door.

As Harry entered, the goblin at the desk said "Good morning, Mr. Potter. Griphook is waiting in his office right through this door and straight ahead."

Harry opened the door into a long hallway. On either side of the hallway were numerous doors leading to small offices, each with a goblin looking through papers and ledgers, occasionally writing things down. The hallway ended at a cherry-wood door with a plaque reading "Griphook". Harry knocked.

"Enter" came the reply, so Harry opened the door and walked into a very large office. In the middle of the office, Griphook sat at an oversized desk across from Dobby.

"Dobby! What a great surprise. I didn't expect to see you here." Harry exclaimed. "And Griphook, it's good to see you as well."

"Have a seat Harry. Your…friend...Dobby and I were just discussing the arrangements for your staffing needs at your various properties. Dobby thinks, and I agree, that it would be prudent to have a personal staff including a head chef, butler, maid, and medic who are assigned to you rather than a particular property. This would prevent the need to duplicate those positions at the various properties, which I assume will seldom be used concurrently."

Surprising Harry, Dobby interjected at this point "Then we could be hiring assistant chefs, housekeepers, and groundskeepers at each property."

"We estimate that your entire estate can be run with approximately three hundred house elves on staff under this structure."

Harry's jaw dropped. "Three hundred? I can't manage that many house-elves."

"It was my understanding that you hired Dobby for that purpose, Harry." Griphook responded.

Recovering from his initial shock, Harry said "I did, are you sure you can handle this Dobby?" The elf nodded vigorously. "Alright, I want you to have full authority over the staff Dobby. You get the final say in hiring decisions." Turning to Griphook, Harry added, "I'd like to give Dobby the same ability to access my accounts without my specific approval that you have. Can you do that, Griphook?"

"Yes, I believe I can arrange that."

"And Dobby, when you are taking care of my business, if anyone gives you any trouble, I want to you inform me immediately. If anyone treats you differently than their other customers, you let me know, ok?"

"Yes, Harry Potter, sir!"

"Great. What else is going on, Griphook?"

"I recently completed a survey of your various properties. Most of them had rather powerful spells which kept them from falling into disrepair over the last twenty years, but I am in the processing of having some work done at certain properties. Once Dobby and I have assembled your staff, however, I will leave those arrangements to them. We have had a tremendous amount of success acquiring property in Ottery St. Catchpole as you requested. Several of the goblins you passed on the way in are working on the escrows of these properties. The cataloging of your family's library and magic items is progressing as well."

"Great, it sounds like you're doing a great job, Griphook. I really appreciate it. Can I ask what happened since my last visit, though? What's with the new offices and the guards and everything?"

Griphook looked unsure how to respond. "Your situation with our bank is a bit unique, Harry. There are ongoing discussions regarding how to…deal…with our new business relationship. I should be able to tell you more at our meeting later this month. For now, all I can say is that the changes made since last week were just a preliminary step towards…securing…your future business."

"I really look forward to our next meeting in that case." Harry said, his curiosity now piqued. "Is there anything else you need from me?"

"No, Harry. Dobby and I have everything under control. We will let you know if anything requires your attention."

"Great! Well keep up the good work, you two. I feel so much better knowing that you're both helping me with running things. I don't think I could do it without you."

Harry said his goodbyes and walked out of the office, back down the hallway, and out through the waiting room. On his way out the double doors, the two goblin guards again left their positions on either side of the doors and accompanied him to the exit out to Diagon Alley. Turning to the two guards as he left, Harry awkwardly "Um…thank you for…guarding me" and left the building. He could have sworn he heard the guards laughing as he got further from the building, but shrugged it off.

Later that night, Harry sat between Professor Dumbledore and Professor Flitwick as the second through seventh-year students filed in to the Great Hall. He received quite a few odd looks from various students as they noticed him at the head table. Looking around the head table, Harry didn't see any unfamiliar faces. Dumbledore had announced his success at hiring a new potions professor at the last staff meeting. However, Dumbledore had made the announcement with such a bright twinkle in his eye that he was a bit frightened.

Professor McGonagall entered the hall with about fifty first-year students and set the sorting hat on a stool. The hat opened up and began to sing an unusually upbeat song:

_By Merlin's beard_

_the time is near_

_To sort the students _

_of another year_

_So have a seat _

_and be strong_

_You'll soon be _

_where you belong_

_But don't forget _

_Divisions aren't set_

_Houses can blend _

_By making a friend_

As the song ended, the student body clapped and cheered and the sorting began. When all of the new students were seated at their respective tables, a magnificent feast appeared. To Harry's memory, it was probably the best meal he had ever eaten, and by the time the dinner clatter died down, he felt about ready to just roll back to his rooms.

Dumbledore stood up to make his start-of-term announcements. "Welcome one and all to a new year at Hogwarts. As always, the forbidden forest is forbidden. As many of you know, the Defense Against the Dark Arts position at Hogwarts has had a rather dismal track record in the past" many of the students snickered or nodded at that. "so I am pleased to announce that defense against the dark arts will no longer be taught at Hogwarts." The entire student body began murmuring and whispering to one another. "Instead" Dumbledore interrupted them, "We have a new course called defense against dark wizards, to be taught by Professor Harry Potter."

At that announcement, a great cheer erupted from the Gryffindor table and some excited clapping from Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. Harry thought he heard hissing coming from the Slytherin table.

"Over the summer break, we also lost our potions master, Severus Snape." Rather than the cheer that might have been expected at such an announcement, the entire group of students just stared dumbstruck at Dumbledore. "Professor Snape had the misfortune of dueling an opponent whose abilities far outstripped his own, resulting in his demise."

Dumbledore's announcement led to a tremendous amount of whispering amongst the students as they speculated on what happened to their former potions teacher. Much of the Slytherin table appeared to be turning green after the announcements involving Harry and Snape. Harry did notice, however, that a few Slytherin students seemed guardedly happy.

"Madam Hooch, an esteemed graduate of Slytherin House, will be stepping in as the head of that house." Dumbledore continued, leading to polite applause from all four tables and a few cheers from Slytherin.

"As for the potions position, I am very pleased to have found a very talented replacement for Professor Snape. Although they have not yet arrived. I have found two individuals whose understanding of potions and ingredients has given them an unprecedented ability to not only brew potions, but to create their own." As if on cue, the doors to the Great Hall burst open revealing two figures in garish purple suits.

The entire hall, students and teachers alike, stared dumbstruck at the new arrivals. The awed silence was punctuated only by the sound of Argus Filch's body hitting the ground as he fell off his chair. With the silence broken, the hall erupted in thunderous applause as Fred and George Weasley strode down the center aisle towards the head table, waving like the Queen of England as they passed the students.

Author's Notes:

I hope you enjoyed the chapter. In my opinion, it just wouldn't be a proper year at Hogwarts without Fred and George, who are obviously very gifted wizards based on their various inventions. I have no doubt they could teach circles around Snape.

As you've probably figured out by now, this fiction is rather self-serving for me. I didn't particularly like Half-Blood Prince so this is my chance to set things right and tell what _really _happened in Harry's sixth year. If Harry is expected to defeat Voldemort, he needs to not be such a big whiny brat and grow a pair. I felt that Sirius' death should have been what pushed Harry to grow up, much as his father must have after his own fifth year. As much as I love Ms. Rowling's work, I feel like she dropped the ball, but I have high hopes for the seventh book based on HBP's ending.

A few people have noted that I have my account set to not accept anonymous reviews. I LOVE getting reviews, but as noted above I'm doing this story as much for myself as everyone else. I don't plan on stopping this fiction because of a low review count. In fact, I'm pretty thrilled that I have almost 60 reviews. I've seen other authors with stories that have thousands of reviews and to be honest, I don't feel like I could take the time to read that many. The current signed reviews are just fine for me and I think I'll keep things set as they are at least for now. I really do appreciate those of you that do take the time to sign in and review.


	13. Chapter 12: Classes Begin

Disclaimer: All of the characters in this fanfiction belong to Ms. Rowling. I don't own them and am not making any money off of this story.

Time to Prepare

Chapter 12 – Classes Begin

Harry sat at his desk at the front of his classroom with a very nervous feeling in his stomach. He had skipped breakfast to come prepare for his first class, which, as luck would have it, was NEWT level defense. The class would be comprised of all sixth and seventh-year students taking his class, and would certainly be the most challenging to teach, considering many of the students were a year ahead of him in school.

Harry was very thankful when Ron, Hermione, and Neville were the first to enter the classroom. Looking around, Hermione exclaimed, "Harry, this is incredible. If it weren't for the stall in the corner, I wouldn't even know this used to be a girl's bathroom."

Harry had enlarged the room to accommodate his larger classes and arranged the students' desks in a semicircle facing his own desk. There were empty bookshelves along two of the walls. In one corner of the room, Myrtle's toilet stall stood untouched. In another corner, was a spiral staircase disappearing into the floor.

"Oh Harry, that doesn't go where I think it does, does it?"

Harry simply smiled at Hermione with a twinkle in his eye. "People call you the smartest witch of our generation for a reason, Hermione."

Harry's three friends took seats near the front of the class as additional students started trickling in. Surprisingly, the entire class was seated and looking at Harry when time came to start the class. "I don't think I've ever seen an entire class arrive on time on the first day of school. Ten points to all four houses, I think."

Millicent Bulstrode raised her hand, "_Professor Potter" _she said in a derisive voice. "What's the point of awarding points if all the houses get the same amount?"

"First of all, when we are in this classroom, I want you all to call me Harry. To answer your question, _Ms. Bulstrode," _he said trying to match her tone, "It is the first class of the first day of term. It would be difficult to deduct house points which you do not yet have, wouldn't it?"

Without waiting for an answer, Harry continued. "Everyone please take out the textbooks you brought for class." While everyone rummaged through their bookbags, Harry walked around the tables looking at the students' selections, occasionally raising an eyebrow at some darker texts. When the class settled down again, he waved his hand and said "Expulsum" sending all of the books to a couple of the empty bookcases against the wall. "As the saying goes. Books away, wands out."

Many in the class laughed and smiled, including a few slytherins, Harry noted.

Pansy Parkinson raised her hand this time. "_Harry, _some students didn't get their wands out like you said. Isn't that disobeying a teacher?"

"Actually, 'wands out' was more of a suggestion than an instruction. You are welcome to put your wand away, but I think you might find today's activity rather difficult if you did so."

While still facing Pansy, Harry pointed at Hermione and said "Reducto!" causing the whole class to gasp.

A split second later, Hermione responded with a wave of her hand and a protego shield appeared around her. "You've been practicing Hermione. Ten points to Gryffindor."

As he walked back to his desk, Harry spun around, pointed at Draco Malfoy and said "Tarantallegra."

Surprising Harry, Draco responded quickly. "Protego!"

"Good reflexes Malfoy. Take ten points for Slytherin as well." Harry said, shocking most of the Slytherins in the room. "In my classroom, you will always be prepared to defend yourself. Welcome to Defense Against Dark Wizards, people. I'll be your dark wizard for the rest of the school year." Harry paused, letting his warning sink in.

"Every time I attack you and you successfully defend in a way you have not previously used, you will earn house points. Expelliarmus!" he said pointing at Terry Boot, who quickly dove under a table causing much of the class to laugh. "Excellent Terry. Ten points to Revenclaw. Use a tactic over again and you neither lose nor gain points. If you fail to defend yourself, I will deduct points. Petrificus Totalus" he said pointing at Hannah Abbot who just stared at the oncoming spell like a deer in headlights.

From Hannah's left, Susan Bones said "Protego!" casting a shield around her friend.

"Ten points from Hufflepuff for failing to defend yourself, Hannah. And twenty points to Hufflepuff for protecting your friend, Susan. You NEVER have to fight a dark wizard alone. Now, I don't want you to feel that you are always on the defensive in this classroom. You are welcome, at anytime, to attack me. This includes in this classroom and out. Any successful attack will earn house points. Is everyone clear on the rules?"

The class nodded as a group.

"Great. Before we really begin, does anyone know why I am not teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts?"

Hermione, of course, raised her hand with a smirk on her face, making Harry laugh. "Does anyone other than Hermione know why I am teaching Defense Against Dark Wizards instead?" Much of the class chuckled.

Ernie McMillan spoke up, "Well it's because of Voldemort, isn't it? He's about as dark as a wizard can get."

"Incorrect. Although if you are able to defend yourself against Voldemort by the end of the year, I will consider myself to have done a fantastic job here. Any other ideas?

Katie Bell raised her hand tentatively. "My great grandmother used to tell me that there was no such thing as a dark art."

"Five points to Gryffindor, Katie. I assume everyone here knows the spell 'lumos', correct?" The class nodded yes. "Would any of you consider that a dark spell?" The class shook their heads no. Harry pointed towards a wall of the classroom and said "Lumos" creating a beam of light so bright that the students in the class had to shield their eyes. "If one of you had been standing in the path of that beam of light, you would have been permanently blinded. Now I ask you again, is lumos a dark spell?" Some of the class looked less sure this time. "In my opinion, there is no such thing as dark magic or dark arts. The only thing that makes magic light or dark is the wizard. I could kill a person hundreds of ways using only spells found in _Enchantment in Baking_."

A few students looked somewhat sick at the thought of being chopped or baked.

"My classroom is comprised of four levels." Harry continued pointing to the stairs in the corner. "We will start every class period in this room, level 1. Level 2 is my office. You are welcome to enter my office at any time. Leave a note if I am not there. The next level below that is a training room on level 3. We will be spending much of our class time there. You are not, under any circumstances, allowed to descend to the fourth level without me being present. Is that clear?" he asked in a commanding voice.

The entire class nodded yes.

"Alright, for the rest of the class you are all going to be playing a game. Please go to level 3. Hermione? Could you lead the group in our favorite game?"

Hermione smiled. "Absolutely, Harry." And she descended down the stairs.

Before they had a chance to go downstairs, Harry called out "Malfoy, Parkinson, Bulstrode, Zabini, I'd like to talk to the four of you." The four students broke away from the class and approached Harry's desk. "I'd like to have a completely honest conversation with the four of you. Nothing that is said during this conversation will ever leave this circle, is that understood?"

"Get on with it Potter, we haven't got all day."

"Fine, Malfoy. I assume that, by the fact the four of you are still alive, you did not join Voldemort this summer along with Crabbe and Goyle?"

All four students just stared at him, shocked that he would ask such a direct question. Eventually, Blaise raised the sleeve of his robe to reveal his bare forearm. "Happy Potter? Now if the interrogation is over, can I rejoin the class." Harry saw the other three likewise raise their sleeves.

"No. The purpose of this conversation is not to establish whether you are currently deatheaters. I had already determined as much based on your absence at Diagon Alley along with Voldemorts other new recruits. The four of you plan on joining Voldemort after graduation, true or false?"

Again, the four students just stared at him.

"Just answer the question. You've as much as said so in the past, Malfoy. Do you plan on joining Voldemort after graduation?"

"Yes" Malfoy replied. The other three students nodded in agreement.

Harry pointed his hand at the four students and said "Legilmens" but instead of looking through their memories, he gave them a few of his own. He showed the four students scene after scene of Voldemort's followers bowing and kissing his robes and Voldemort torturing and killing his most trusted deatheaters. He then showed them his memory in the chamber of secrets of Tom Riddle revealing that he became Lord Voldemort to escape his father's filthy muggle name. After Harry was satisfied with what he had showed them, he ended the spell.

The four Slytherins stood, looking at each other but not speaking.

"I'll be the first to admit that I don't particularly like you." Harry said. "But from what I know of you, the prospect of groveling at the feet of a 'mudblood' probably isn't particularly appealing. I may disagree with you, but in the end I don't particularly care if you despise muggle-borns and half-bloods as long as you don't go around killing people. What it comes down to is I just want you to know that being against me and being for Voldemort are not the same thing. Is that clear?"

All four students nodded thoughtfully.

"You can go downstairs now." As they turned to leave, Harry called out. "This conversation never happened."

"Damn right it didn't, Potter" Malfoy said with his trademark sneer. "We can't have it getting out that we talked to a blood-traitor like you" he said, but Harry thought he sensed a little less vindictiveness in his voice.

As they walked away, Pansy whipped around and said "Stupefy!"

Harry laughed, raising his hand and a shield at the same time. "Nice try Pansy, but no luck."

When the Slytherins had disappeared downstairs, Harry slumped into his chair, relieved that he had gotten that conversation out of the way. Knowing that Hermione would have the dodgeball game well under control, Harry decided to sneak away and peek in on Fred and George's class. He was just in time for the start of their second class of the morning, which happened to be the fifth-year Gryffindors and Ravenclaws.

Seeing Harry enter the room, Fred straightened himself out and cordially said "Class, please welcome…"

"Our esteemed colleague…" George continued.

"The talented…"

"The handsome…"

"The housebroken…"

"Harry Potter!" they concluded together.

"Hi guys, I just wanted to stop by and see your potions-teaching style." Harry said as he conjured a third seat at Ginny and Luna's table.

George smiled "You're always welcome…"

"to come into our class, Harry." Fred added.

"But we can't promise you'll get out alive."

Turning to the class, George actually got somewhat serious. "If you turn to page four hundred thirty-two of your textbook, you'll find a potion that temporarily changes the color of whatever it is applied to."

"This is one of our favorite potions." Fred continued. "It can be used in a variety of ways. We want you to spend today's class brewing the potion. We'll let you chose which color to use, but we're rather partial to bright pink."

"For the rest of the week, we want you to figure out a way to modify the potion in one of five ways." George added.

Fred started: "Number 1 - Applying this potion can be a pain. If you make it explode, you don't have to worry about that."

George chimed in: "Number 2 – A solid color can get so boring. Adding polka-dots would be a lot more fun."

"Number 3 – Picking just one color can be hard. Make the potion change colors a few times after application."

"Number 4 – Sometimes you don't want things to happen right away. You need time to make your escape. Give the potion a time-delay after application"

Fred finished "And Number 5 – not everything you apply the potion to will look good in the same color. Make it turn every object it touches a different color."

"Any questions?" George asked.

"No? Well get started midgets!" Fred said before turning to Harry. "Mate, not that we mind your company, but don't you have a class to teach right now?"

"I'm sure Hermione has it well under control. And guys, you are brilliant professors. Almost makes me wish I was taking potions this year. Do you really know how to do all those things to the potion?"

"Of course we do…we've actually found six or seven ways to do each of those things."

"Although most of them have some less desirable side effects."

Harry laughed. "I don't doubt that. So who is running your store while you guys are here?"

George laughed, "Would you believe Angelina and Lee are taking care of it? Dumbledore gave us a whole wing of the dungeons to make our products while we're here, so they just have to worry about selling it."

"Business was booming over the summer, Harryboy."

"I noticed, Fred. You know you guys didn't have to make me a partial owner in your business, don't you? You can have it back if you want."

"I'm insulted" George said, feigning injury. "Does our investor want to withdraw from the business?"

"Never. I can't think of any two guys I'd rather be in business with. I should probably be getting back to my own class though. Keep up the good work guys, I think potions is going to be moving quickly up the list of favorite classes at Hogwarts with you guys here." Harry said and turned to leave. As he exited the room, he started laughing, as one of the students had apparently already figured out how to make their potion explode.

Harry arrived back at his classroom and descended to the third floor to find the class just starting their second game of dodgeball. He casually pulled Ron, Hermione, and Neville out of the game and asked, "How did they do?"

"Pretty dismal, mate." Ron answered.

"Most of them aren't terribly creative, its just one banishing charm after another with this group." Hermione explained.

"Well that's easy to fix. Get back in there guys." Turning to the class, Harry shouted. "Next person that uses a banishing charm loses twenty points!"

Most of the class stood around trying to think of a way to make the ball move without using a banishing charm. After about thirty seconds of no action whatsoever, Hannah Abbott started walking towards the ball, looking very determined to redeem herself after her failure to defend against Harry's attack earlier in class. Upon reaching the ball, she said "Leviosa" gently raising it into the air. When it reached eye-level she pointed her wand at it and screamed "Aquamentis!"

The ball was propelled away from her in a violent jet of water, not only hitting Ernie Macmillan but drenching him as well.

Padma Patil, who was on Ernie's team took the next offensive, using the wind-summoning spell "Aquilo!" blowing the ball right into her sister, Parvati.

Although the game slowed down a lot, the students began to get a little more creative with how to tag the other team. With a few minutes left in the class before lunch, Harry assembled everyone back in the classroom on the first level.

"Nice job today everyone. I'd like you all to leave the books you brought for this class on the shelves. This classroom will be open at all times for you to consult any of the texts when you need to. Now before I dismiss the class, does anyone want to share what they think the point of today's class was?" No one in the class volunteered. "You guys are going to have to do better than this if you want to pass your NEWTs. Come on, what was I trying to teach you today?"

Cho Chang raised her hand. "I think it was that thinking fast and varying tactics can be more important than just knowing powerful spells."

"Very good, five points to Ravenclaw" Harry said as he casually pointed his hand at Ron and said "Diffindo".

Ron quickly replied "Contego", an advanced shielding charm while Neville counter-attacked Harry with "Everbero."

Harry had to dive under a desk to avoid the unexpected bludgeoning spell. "Nicely done gentlemen, fifteen points to Gryffindor." At that moment, nearly every Slytherin in the room stood up and shouted a variety of spells at Harry.

"Stupefy!"

"Petrificus Totalus"

"Stupefy"

"Diffindo!"

"Everbero"

"Petrificus Totalus!"

Harry quickly moved his hand in a large circle in front of him saying "Speculum!" reflecting all of the spells back to the casters, causing some damage to Malfoy and Blaise Zabini, who had cast the cutting and bludgeoning hexes.

After reviving the Slytherins who had been stupefied and petrified, Harry said, "Please take Draco and Blaise to see Madam Pomfrey to get fixed up. And don't feel too bad, Snape fell for my reflecting shield too…before I killed him that is."

Most of the class to gasped in shock.

"Class dismissed" Harry said as he turned to descend to his office. Before he disappeared down the stairs, he called out "And thirty points to Slytherin for teamwork."

Author's Notes:

Hopefully you enjoyed the insight into Fred and George's teaching style as well as Harry's. You don't have to worry. I wouldn't have made them professors if I didn't intend to write about their classes.

I want to thank everyone who reviewed after the last chapter. I'm really glad to see such a response to this story, because I'm having a blast writing it.


	14. Chapter 13: OWL Class

Disclaimer: All of the characters in this fanfiction belong to Ms. Rowling. I don't own them and am not making any money off of this story.

Time to Prepare

Chapter 13 – OWL Class

Harry sat down heavily in his office desk chair and let out a deep sigh. He hadn't realized how much teaching the NEWT class would takeout of him. A few moments later, Hermione, Ron, and Neville descended the stairs into his office. "Hey guys, how'd I do?"

"Are you kidding, mate? That was the best defense class we've ever had. You should have seen people talking on the way out." Ron answered.

"Really Harry, you handled the class very well. I think you're going to have to be careful when you walk the halls. A few people looked absolutely giddy at the prospect of attacking a teacher."

"Well I have you guys to watch my back, don't I?"

"Always, Harry." Neville said seriously.

Hermione asked, "Want to join us for lunch?"

"I better, I'm teaching the OWL class all afternoon and I'm starving. Mondays and Wednesdays are going to be killer." And the four friends walked towards the Great Hall.

As they entered the hall, students from every table threw a curse or two at him causing Dumbledore to raise an eyebrow. Hermione, however, blocked all of the curses with a slight flick of her hand, creating a magical shield around the group.

"Hermione, you're scary with that spell."

She got serious for a moment, "Harry, after the time we spent at your place, I realized that if I needed to learn one spell perfectly it was a shield. I practiced for hours every day for the rest of the summer. Sometimes I don't even have to wave my hand anymore."

"It shows" Harry said as he shoveled food into his mouth.

A few minutes later, Ginny and Luna walked into the hall, wearing clean robes, but with multi-colored hair and faces. Ginny said "Do NOT ask" harshly to Ron as she sat down.

"We had Fred and George in our second period this morning." Luna explained.

"How was it?" Hermione asked, her doubt about the twins' ability to teach evident.

"It was actually great. We could ask questions and they would actually answer." Ginny said as she grabbed a sandwich from a platter. "My only advice is that you watch who you sit near. Colin was a little…enthusiastic about our project this week."

As the six friends ate, several more NEWT defense students cast curses at Harry, all of which were harmlessly stopped by Hermione's shield. Eventually, Cho Chang approached the group.

"Harry, we don't think it's fair that Hermione is protecting you. She's in the class too, shouldn't she be trying to curse you?"

Hermione just calmly responded, "Dark wizards have friends too, Cho."

Cho seemed to accept that explanation and walked back to the Ravenclaw table. A few minutes later, Luna stopped eating rather suddenly. "I think everyone should duck."

Harry, Ginny and Luna immediately stopped what they were doing and ducked under the table. Following their movement, a barrage of mashed potatoes from the Hufflepuff table assaulted the three Gryffindors that didn't heed Luna's warning.

Struggling to stand up because of their laughter, Luna, Ginny and Harry eventually managed to regain their composure and help their friends get cleaned up. Harry casually said, "Thanks Luna" and continued eating. He noticed Hermione scribbling a quick note on a piece of parchment from her backpack.

_Shield does not stop objects._

"Hey Harry, I think Dumbledore is trying to get your attention." Neville said.

Sure enough, when Harry looked up to the head table, Dumbledore beckoned him over.

"Harry, I'm afraid that your class did not go well today." Dumbledore said with a twinkle. "I believe even Ms. Umbridge made it through her first day without being attacked by the student body."

"What can I say, Albus? People love to hate me."

"You don't plan on turning my school into a battleground, do you Harry?" Dumbledore said with a bit more seriousness.

Harry got a somewhat scary glint in his eye. "I wouldn't worry, Albus. Today is their free day. Starting tomorrow, I think they'll quickly learn that quality far outstrips quantity. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go get ready for my OWL class."

As Harry passed by his friends again, he beckoned for Ginny and Luna to join him on the way to his class.

Once again, when it was time for class to start, every student was seated and watching Harry, meriting another ten points for each house. He gave a very similar speech to the one he gave that morning to his NEWT level class. "…I will be your dark wizard for the rest of the school year. Any questions?"

One of the Slytherins in the class raised his hand. "Is it true that you're the one that killed Professor Snape?"

"Yes. Any other questions?"

The same boy raised his hand again. "Why?"

"He deserved it. Any other questions?"

As the same boy started raising his hand again, Harry pointed at him and said "Stupefy!" which hit him squarely in the chest. After reviving the boy, Harry said "What's your name?"

"Jacob Harper…but everyone just calls me Harper."

"Five points from Slytherin, Harper. Be faster next time." Turning to the class, Harry said "We're going to play a game today on level four. Is anyone familiar with the muggle game capture-the-flag?" A few students raised their hands. Harry waved his hand over the room, turning the students' robes either blue or green "You are now divided into teams. Harper! You're the blue team captain and this is your 'flag'." Harry continued handing Harper a gold hoop. "Blue team, your job is to protect that hoop. If you last the entire period without losing it to the green team, you've won. How you go about protecting it is up to you. Any questions?"

A Ravenclaw from the blue team raised her hand, "I thought we weren't allowed to go to the fourth level?"

"No, I said you aren't allowed to go to the fourth level without my specific permission. Just because there is nothing down there to kill you today, doesn't mean there won't be tomorrow. Any other questions?"

No one raised their hands.

"Then what are you waiting for blue team? Get going!" And everyone wearing a blue robe, including Luna, practically ran down the stairs to the fourth level.

"Colin, you're the captain of the green team. In five minutes, I'm letting your team head down those stairs. Your job is to get the hoop before the end of class. It has anti-summoning spells on it so you actually have to physically grab it. You can start planning now."

The green team huddled together and started discussing strategy. After five minutes, Harry gave the team the all clear to head to the fourth level.

"Ginny, could you come see me please?" Harry called out.

"What's up Harry?" she said, running back to his desk.

"Um…you don't have to play this game if you don't want to. We can practice up here." Harry said, trying to be delicate.

"Why wouldn't I want to play?"

"I'm not sure if you realize what the fourth level is, Gin…."

Ginny slapped him hard across the face. "Do you think I'm some sort of moron? Honestly Harry, give me just a little credit, would you?" and she turned to walk towards the stairs followed by Harry, "I need to do this. Probably more than anyone else here."

When Harry and Ginny reached the bottom of the stairs, the green team was huddled around trying to decide what to do. They stood in a rather large cave-like area that was not well-lit. A few students had cast lumos spells, but the light did not extend far into the cave.

"Any suggestions?" Colin asked his team.

Harry looked over at Ginny who had a couple tears streaming down her cheek. She took a deep breath and began talking. "This section goes on for another hundred meters or so. There are two smaller tunnels branching off along the right wall. We should probably send teems down those to see if the blue team just picked a quick hiding spot without fully exploring down here."

"Great idea, Ginny. You three take the first tunnel and you three take the second. Run back as soon as you can if you find anything. The rest of us will go straight ahead…um…what happens when this section ends in a hundred meters, Ginny?"

She thought for a moment, "I'm not really sure. There used to be a locked door there, but if its still there, we don't have worry about the blue team getting past it. Beyond the door is a huge room with a lot of hiding places behind pillars and side tunnels. My guess is that if the blue team made it into that room, that's where they're staying to defend the hoop."

"Ok, the main group will make our way to that room then. Stay on your guard everyone."

The green team slowly made their way through the cave, looking for the gold hoop. The two groups that were dispatched to check side tunnels came back empty-handed, rejoining the main group. As Ginny suspected, they found the door to the next room wide open, but several guards stood on either side of the door.

Although the guards were no match for their entire team, one did manage to send a spray of red sparks into the next room alerting the opposing team to their presence. As the green team passed over the threshold into the next room, Ginny casually said "Welcome to the chamber of secrets, folks" causing several students to stop in their tracks.

The chamber was much more well-lit than the cave they just exited and the gold hoop could clearly be seen on top of the statue of Salazar Slytherin in the distance, seemingly unguarded. As they moved further into the room, members of the blue team began shooting spells at them from behind various pillars in a coordinated attack, quickly stunning and incapacitating much of the green team, including Colin Creevy.

Ginny quickly assumed a leadership role and summoned several walls to provide cover for her team and ducked down, instructing some of her team to keep firing at the attackers while the rest tried to revive their fallen teammates. She then cast a very effective disillusionment charm on herself and began making her way towards the statue of Slytherin without being seen by anyone on the other team.

As Ginny approached the statue, she heard a firm "Repello!" from her right as she was violently thrown away from her goal.

In mid-air, Ginny turned to the rapidly approaching ground and said "Repello", creating a counter force that slowed her fall and allowed her to land gracefully.

Ginny turned and cast a wide-area "Finite Incantatum" at the same time as her unseen attacker cast the same spell and found herself face-to-face with a smiling Luna Lovegood.

"I think you should stay right where you are, Ginny. I can't let you near this hoop." Luna said before pointing at Ginny's feet, saying "Ignis" causing a wall of flames to erupt from the ground around her opponent.

"Sorry Luna, but I'm getting that hoop and you're not going to stop me. Aquilo!" Ginny said, summoning a gust of wind to blow out the raging fire before turning to Luna with fire in her eyes. Ginny shouted "Accio Stone!" and pulled a very large brick from the wall behind Luna straight towards the young Ravenclaw.

As the large brick hurtled towards her, Luna calmly said "Corpusfumo" turning her body intangible for a moment, allowing the stone to pass right through her. Unfortunately for Ginny, the accio spell has a nasty habit of bringing objects straight towards the caster.

Thinking quickly, Ginny cast "Tripudio" and leapt over the oncoming brick.

Luna was already on the offensive, casting "Aquamentis," shooting Ginny with a heavy spray of water, followed by "Gelo!" freezing the water.

A very cold Ginny muttered "Fervesco" through clattering teeth to warm herself up again. "Dirty trick, Luna, you know how much I hate being cold. Telum Imber!" A spray of arrows shot from Ginny's hand traveling towards Luna.

Luna tsk-tsk'd at Ginny. "That's a very nasty spell to be casting. Quiesco!" and the arrows stopped and fell harmlessly to the ground. "Terramotus!" Ginny was rocked from her feet by the suddenly shaking ground. Neither girl noticed that both teams had stopped fighting to watch the two duel. While Ginny was still on the ground, Luna followed up with "Silex Evincio" which created stone bindings around the other girl's arms and legs.

An obviously annoyed Ginny responed with "Fracta!" shattering her earthen bindings. "Luna, you are in such trouble. Everbero!"

Luna used one of Harry's favorite tricks and cast "Speculum!"

Although Ginny's spell was partially reflected, it also pierced Luna's shield throwing her back into the wall behind her quite hard. Ginny was similarly unprepared for the reflected spell and was sent flying into the opposite wall of the room.

Harry appeared seemingly from out of nowhere to check on his two friends, who were both sitting up slowly rubbing the backs of their heads but with huge smiles on their faces. Ginny and Luna walked to the middle of the room and burst into laughter before hugging each other as much for support to stand as from actual laughter.

"That was the best time I've had in ages, Luna!"

Luna looked oddly at Ginny. "If the best time you've had in ages involved getting a mild concussion, I think you need to get out more" at which both girls fell into another bout of laughter.

Harry interrupted their reverie. "Nice job to both teams, but I expect a little more strategy in future encounters. Thanks to the two lovely duelers today, I want to see a two-foot essay on the use of the elements in dueling by Wednesday. Class dismissed."

Author's Notes:

Thanks for the reviews everyone, it was nice to not only pass 100 reviews, but to rocket right through that milestone.

A few review responses:

Prongs J. Potter – I agree that Harry wouldn't normally so casually admit to killing anybody, but at the same time he is playing a part while teaching. He doesn't normally go around cursing unsuspecting victims either, but its part of his style.

Ferdia – As I noted in the story, Harry's NEWT-level class is all sixth and seventh year students pursuing defense past the OWL level. As such, people such as Cho Chang and Katie Bell, who are in their seventh years in this story are in his class. As for providing additional detail, I tend to dislike the fics that go into excruciating detail about every little thing. In my descriptions I try to give readers just enough information to let their own imaginations run wild. I take a similar tactic to conversations – often times what is left unsaid is just as important as what is said. Just like life, I don't think a story needs a full narration of everything that is going on, but that's just my philosophy.

Mozes (Danielle) – All I can say is wow! I was so happy to read your review and that you are enjoying the story (though I admit I'm a bit nervous about how my writing will go over with an actual teacher). It is very nice to know that I'm not the only one that wished HBP had gone a little differently. I'll try not to let you down!

Bobboky – I'm really glad that my first reviewer is still enjoying the story. Thanks for sticking with me.


	15. Chapter 14: Harry and the Midgets

Disclaimer: All of the characters in this fanfiction belong to Ms. Rowling. I don't own them and am not making any money off of this story.

Time to Prepare

Chapter 14 – Harry and the Midgets

The great hall was buzzing at breakfast on the second day of school. The first through third-year students that Harry would be teaching that day tended to look sick or excited based on what they heard about defense class the day before.

Harry walked in to breakfast and sat with his friends at the Gryffindor table rather than eating at the staff table. Three students from his classes the day before, one each from Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff, decided to again attack him at mealtime.

Harry wordlessly deflected the spells and levitated all three students into the air. Speaking loud enough for everyone in the hall to hear, he said "Twenty points from each of your houses for a very poorly-planned attack. Another twenty points from each of your houses for not taking my class seriously enough. The next time you attack a dark wizard, you better be damn sure you're going to win." Most of the great hall was in shock even before Harry added, "And two weeks of detention to be served with Mr. Filch."

Anyone else who was thinking of trying to attacking Harry quickly reconsidered and simply started eating.

Ron interrupted Harry's breakfast with a playful punch in the shoulder. "Nice going, Potter. You just gave Slytherin the lead for the House Cup."

"Would you prefer to eat every meal under a barrage of sloppy spellwork, Ron?" Harry replied before taking another bite of sausage. "Besides, I have to even out the odds somehow with you guys in Gryffindor and Ravenclaw this year. I need to go prepare for the first-years. See you guys at lunch."

Harry's first class of the day filled in from the back row forward, with those arriving latest being forced to sit in the front of class. He hadn't considered what effect his antics with the older students would have on the youngest students at Hogwarts.

"Before we get started, who wants to tell me why they are afraid of me?" The whole class seemed to find their tables terribly interesting. "In ten seconds, I'm going to start taking points away from houses. Ten, nine, eight."

One of the young Gryffindor students' hands shot up. "I heard that you hex people in class."

"Five points for Gryffindor bravery at being the first. That's true. I do hex people in class. Though this class doesn't have to worry about that today. Next! Someone from another house this time. Why are you afraid of me?"

After a few seconds, a Hufflepuff girl raised her hand. "You already took so many points from my house today already. I'm afraid you'll take more."

"Five points for house loyalty. How very Hufflepuff of you." Harry said with a smile. "I only take away points when it is deserved. Who's next, we still haven't heard from Ravenclaw and Slytherin."

One of the Ravenclaws who had arrived early and sat in the back of the room raised his hand next. "You don't use a wand."

"You're going to have to explain that a little more. Why does it scare you that I don't use a wand?"

"Well...everyone else uses wands except you and your friends. I tried it last night and I can't do anything without a wand."

"Afraid of what you don't know? Five points to Ravenclaw. Knowledge is power. Alright, someone from Slytherin this time."

Several hands from Slytherin students shot up. Harry pointed to one of the girls who stood up quite regally before speaking. "I'm not afraid of you, but given your recent history of killing Slytherin students and staff, I thought I should keep my distance just in case."

Harry laughed. "A calculated and thought out response. Five points for being a quintessential Slytherin. While it is true that I killed a number of Slytherins this summer, it wasn't their house affiliation that led to their death." Turning to the whole class, Harry continued "I'll make you all a deal right here and now. If you promise not to join Voldemort I promise not to kill you. Deal?" The class nodded their heads. "Great, lets get started then."

After having the class take out the books they brought for the class, Harry banished them to one of the empty bookcases in the room, about half of which were now filled with a wide range of books on defense and the dark arts.

"Did you learn any spells in any of your classes yesterday?"

"We learned the lumos spell in charms." A Ravenclaw named Allison said.

"Excellent, could you please come up here in front of the class and demonstrate that spell."

The young girl did as Harry asked, producing a dim light on the tip of her wand.

"Nice job, now I'd like you to stay up here and do that spell again, but this time a friend of mine is going to be trying to stop you. Class, I'd like to introduce you to Myrtle." On her cue, Myrtle emerged from the wall behind Harry's desk. "Now Allison, on the count of three, Myrtle is going to start moving towards you. I want you to cast the lumos spell before she reaches you, ok?"

Allison nodded.

"One, two, three!"

Myrtle began moving towards the young girl quite slowly. Allison stammered the incantation for the lumos spell a few times, but with no results. Eventually, Myrtle reached her and passed straight through the Ravenclaw, leaving her cold, but unharmed.

"Nice try Allison. You can have a seat." And the shivering girl walked back to her seat. "Anyone want to volunteer before I start calling names?"

With no volunteers, Harry began calling each student in class to try to perform a spell with Myrtle approaching. Usually the class burst into laughter and applause every time the young ghost finally reached her victim, freezing them to the bone and ending the exercise. A few of the students managed a brief burst of light, but overall, the class failed dismally – exactly as Harry expected a first-year class to perform on their second day.

"Ok everyone. You did very poorly today, but that was expected. Your progress in this class is not based on how well you do today, but how well you do in nine months. I want you all to practice casting spells quickly and under pressure before Thursday. That's your homework."

"How can we practice spells under pressure?" one person asked.

"Pick a study partner. At any time over the next two days, that person can walk up to you and give you five seconds to cast a spell. Once you have that down, cut the time to 3 seconds. If you stop having trouble with that, let your partner choose what spell you have to do within the time limit. Be creative people. Myrtle has also agreed to 'attack' you in the halls. Cast any spell when she appears and she'll go find another victim. You're dismissed."

The class stood and exited the room, talking excitedly and choosing study partners. Harry leaned back in his chair and stretched, popping a few kinks in his back. As he stretched, he casually said to Myrtle, "You were brilliant Myrtle. I can't tell you how much I appreciate your help. I think most of them would have wet themselves if I pretended to attack them."

For the first time since Harry had known her, he saw Myrtle look genuinely happy. "It's my pleasure Harry." Then, seeming to remember that she wasn't supposed to be quite that happy, she added "It's not like I have any choice since you ruined my home" and disappeared into her stall.

Harry only had a few moments to relax before his second-year class began trickling into the room. Luckily, this class wasn't quite as afraid of him, having already attended school with him the previous year.

"I'm sorry to say that this is going to probably be your hardest class this year." He said, eliciting a few groans from the class. "Unfortunately, your defense teacher last year was a complete waste of space, so we are starting from scratch here. Does everyone here know at least one hex or curse? Any offensive spell that you could use against an opponent in a duel?"

Everyone in the class nodded their heads.

"I want everyone to hex me right now."

While nearly everyone in the class was rifling through their bags looking for their wands, two students sent hexes at Harry, a stupefy and a petrificus totalus. Both hexes, of course, harmlessly struck a shield that Harry had active at all times these days. "You two, what are your names?"

"Joe Anjiro" came the reply from a boy in Hufflepuff.

The young Slytherin girl answered "Ashley Ghandron."

"Twenty points to Hufflepuff and Slytherin for being prepared. You can each have ten more points if you come up the front of the class and demonstrate a duel."

Joe timidly said, "You want us to duel each other?"

"No, I want both of you to duel me. I'm going to drop my shield and I want the two of you to attack me with any spells you know. I am going to defend myself only, I won't cast any attack spells. You can start whenever you're ready."

As the two second-years began throwing curses at Harry, he began giving a lecture while defending the attacks. "The protego spell can be a wizards best friend" he said, casting the spell to deflect the first two shots from Joe and Ashley. "However, the protego shield is only as powerful as you make it. It can often be broken by a superior opponent" he said as he weakened his own shield, allowing a jelly-legs curse to break through. "One of the keys to winning a duel against a more experienced or more powerful wizard is being able to think and react quickly." Pointing to a piece of parchment on the ground, Harry said "Leviosa" raising the parchment into the path of a tarantallegra jinx that Ashley had cast, blocking the spell. "Even spells that don't seem to have any combat uses at first glance like the levitation charm can save your life in a duel. Thank you Joe and Ashley for that demonstration. You can take your seats again."

Harry turned back to the whole class. "In this class you will always be ready to defend yourself. If I ever see anyone reaching into their backpack for their wand again, you will lose twenty house points. Is that understood?

The class nodded.

"We are going to be spending the rest of the class practicing two spells, the shield charm I just demonstrated, and the disarming spell." Harry pointed to one of the Ravenclaw students and said "Expelliarmus" causing his wand to fly out of his hand and into Harry's. "Most wizards and witches won't be able to do much harm without their wands," he said as he handed the wand back to the student. "The shield spell is very difficult, so I just want you all to do your best. The incantation is 'protego'. The disarming charm is a fairly weak spell, so some of you might be able to erect a strong enough shield to withstand it. Break into groups of two and start practicing."

As the class started practicing, Harry walked around the class helping students with the two spells. Not many students had successfully cast either spell by the end of class.

"Your homework before Thursday is to practice those two spells. I also want two feet of parchment on ten ways to defend yourself from the disarming spell including the pros and cons of each method. You're dismissed."

A few minutes later, as the third-year students were filtering into Harry's classroom, he couldn't help wondering how he was going to make it through the year without collapsing of exhaustion.


	16. Chapter 15: Interludes

Disclaimer: All of the characters in this fanfiction belong to Ms. Rowling. I don't own them and am not making any money off of this story.

Time to Prepare

Chapter 15 – Interludes

_Hermione's Interlude – NEWT Potions_

Hermione entered her first NEWT Potions class with some amount of trepidation. Having known the Weasley twins for years, she was rightfully concerned with how their class would be conducted. She took a seat near the back of the class and started unpacking her potions materials.

Several minutes later, when the class was all seated, Fred and George entered the room wearing their typical garish clothes.

Fred began the class, "Welcome to NEWT Potions everyone."

"We will be studying some of the most difficult potions this year." George continued.

"We don't want any casualties in our first year, so please speak up if you are lost or confused."

"The first potion that we're going to be working on is the Polyjuice. It's a very advanced potion that isn't in your textbooks, so please copy the directions very carefully." George said as the instructions appeared on the blackboard.

Fred noticed Hermione wasn't writing. "Is there a problem Ms. Granger?"

"No Professor," she said, smiling as he recoiled slightly at the title. "I already know this potion."

"Then perhaps you can help us by informing the class of polyjuice's limitations as it is commonly brewed."

Hermione thought for a long moment. "Well, it only works for an hour and you need a piece of the person you want to become." Thinking some more she added "And it tastes terrible."

George chimed in "You're missing the most important one."

"I'm not sure what you mean. I can't think of any other limitations."

Fred smiled broadly, "Actually Hermione, from what I hear, you are intimately familiar with the other limitation."

Blushing furiously, Hermione mumbled, "You can only turn into other people."

"Correct!" George said loudly, flipping over the blackboard to reveal the previously listed limitations. "You are all going to start three batches of Polyjuice today."

"The first one will be traditionally brewed. The other two will attempt to alter the potion to address one or more of the issues listed on the board.

Padma Patil raised her hand, "I don't understand. What do you mean the other two will alter the potion?"

"Ms. Patil. A second-year could brew this potion by simply following the instructions" George said with a slight wink to Hermione. "This is NEWT Potions. You are expected to have a greater understanding of potions than simply following instructions."

Fred joined in, "Have you ever seen someone eat one of our Canary Creams?"

Most of the class nodded.

"Those creams use a modified polyjuice potion that took us five years to develop. It solves three of the four limitations, though it exacerbates the fourth. Anyone care to explain?"

Susan Bones raised her hand, "Well, they taste really good and they obviously don't turn you into a human. I'm guessing that you don't actually need a piece of a canary?"

"That's correct. Twenty points to anyone who can tell the class why the effect only lasts for five to ten minutes."

"My guess would be that the ingredient you added to allow for more dramatic transformations also shortens the duration of the potion? Maybe the magnitude of the change is inversely proportional to the length of the effect?"

"Twenty points to Gryffindor, Ms. Granger."

"Get started everyone" Fred concluded.

Hermione began preparing three cauldrons, smiling broadly. 'I think I'm going to enjoy this class.'

_Luna's Interlude – Tutoring the Ravenclaws_

The same evening after classes were finished, Luna sat in a corner of the Ravenclaw common room reviewing some books on defense, alone as always. Given her outcast status, she was doubly startled when she heard a soft cough.

Luna looked up to see Cho Chang standing in front of her, looking like she wanted to ask Luna a question.

"Can I help you, Cho?"

"Well, um…I was kind of wondering if you'd like to study together. Maybe we can help each other out in defense?"

"You're welcome to join me, Cho, though I don't really need your help." Luna said casually, turning back to her book.

"Yeah. I noticed how well you've been doing…I guess, to be honest, I was hoping you would help me out."

"Cho, when was the last time you used magic?"

"I guess it was in charms class this afternoon. Why?"

"That's your problem. Magic isn't something you study, its something you are. Harry knows that, and you need to also if you want to do well in his class."

"I'm not sure I understand."

"You just don't seem comfortable using magic casually, Cho. Right now I'm maintaining a weak protego shield, practicing occlumency, and levitating the chair I'm sitting on about half a centimeter off the ground."

"Why are you doing those things though?"

"Because I'm a witch. Your magic is a lot like a muscle, Cho. The more you exercise it, the faster and stronger it gets."

Cho at on a chair near Luna, put her backpack on the floor and summoned her charms book, levitating it in front of her as she read. The two unlikely study partners sat and read in silence for hours, casting minor bits of magic the whole while, and occasionally throwing hexes at each other. The fact that the most popular Ravenclaw and the biggest outcast in the school were sitting close to each other studying and even giggling didn't go unnoticed by the other occupants of Ravenclaw tower.

_Voldemort's Interlude – The Ambush_

It was midnight at Diagon Alley and there wasn't a soul wandering the streets. The only presence was what appeared to be a badly beaten Remus Lupin lying in a pool of blood down a dark offshoot of the main alley.

Nearby, Voldemort waited on a rooftop watching the scene with a cold smile. He had sent Harry Potter a vision of his beloved werewolf being badly beaten in Diagon Alley, knowing that the boy would jump to the rescue as always. The boy couldn't resist playing the hero. Voldemort knew his enemy better than most. Harry Potter was weak and foolish, making him easy prey.

Voldemort had learned from his prior mistake, now knowing that he could not give the old man time to save the day. This time, Harry Potter would die quickly before Dumbledore even knows what is happening. With the wizarding world's golden child gone, it would only be a matter of weeks before Voldemort became the undisputed lord of Britain.

Voldemort chuckled again, enjoying his imminent triumph and continued to watch the street for the boy's approach. Five minutes of waiting turned to ten, and then twenty. Soon the minutes turned to hours and Voldemort began to get impatient.

As the sun began to rise over Diagon Alley, Voldemort stood up from his position crouched on the rooftop and shot a killing curse at the form of Remus Lupin, instantly killing the deatheater who had been impersonating the werewolf for the night's trap.

Voldemort apparated away and quickly called his deatheaters from their hiding places in Diagon Alley. "Lucius! You will find out what kept the boy from saving his adopted mutt. Fail me and you will not live to regret it."

"Yes, my Lord." Lucius said, bowing and exiting the room.

Voldemort turned to the rest of his deatheaters. Someone had to suffer tonight for the failed ambush that night.

Author's Notes:

I apologize that its been so long since the last update. I have been out of town on business for a while but should be back on my home computer by Monday. Hope, you enjoy this brief chapter in the meantime.


	17. Chapter 16: Where Loyalties Lie

Disclaimer: All of the characters in this fanfiction belong to Ms. Rowling. I don't own them and am not making any money off of this story.

Time to Prepare

Chapter 16 – Where Loyalties Lie

Draco Malfoy walked in to the defense classroom several hours early on Wednesday, and sighed with relief upon finding Harry already in his office on the second level.

"Can I help you, Malfoy?"

Draco cut straight to the heart of why he was there. "Voldemort wants to know where you were last night."

"I'm not sure what you mean, Draco."

"Apparently he expected you somewhere and you didn't show up. He wants to know why and if he doesn't find out he'll probably kill my father." Draco explained. "And if you say one word about that being a good thing, I'm going to personally become Voldemort's top recruiter at Hogwarts."

"Relax Malfoy. I may not like your father, but I prefer that Voldemort continue to have the same inept confidants rather than find new followers who might pose more of a threat." Thinking for a moment, Harry added "Make sure you and the other Slytherins are passing by the hospital wing in one hour. You can go now."

Although he didn't appreciate being dismissed in such a way, Draco Malfoy left Harry's office for the Slytherin common room.

One hour later, a group of Slytherins were passing by the Hogwarts infirmary when a very haggard-looking Harry Potter emerged with Albus Dumbledore.

"I don't know what happened, Albus. One moment I was fine and the next my scar exploded with pain and I guess I passed out. I woke up here this morning. I guess someone in Gryffindor found me and took me to the hospital wing."

"Well, Harry, please let me know if you suffer any additional attacks." Dumbledore replied before walking off towards his office.

Seeing the Slytherins, Harry straightened himself up with what appeared to be a great deal of effort and turned to Malfoy. "I'm sure that you and your friends have somewhere else to be. I suggest you go there before I start docking house points."

Malfoy opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted. "Ten points from Slytherin for talking back to a teacher. Shall I start assigning detentions or are you going to leave now?"

The group of Slytherins turned to leave, but did not miss the fact that Harry slumped over against the wall and slid to the floor, causing several members of their group to laugh. Once the giggling Slytherins had gone out of view, Harry leapt to his feet and strode confidently to his classroom.

As his NEWT class filtered into his classroom later that morning, several of the students noticed three empty vials labeled "Pepper Up" on Harry's desk. After about half of the students had entered the room, Harry seemed to notice the vials and tried to sweep them into a drawer inconspicuously, but making far too much noise to actually go unnoticed. Once the whole class was seated, Harry began a brief lecture, limping slightly as he walked around the classroom.

For the first time in his life, Draco Malfoy respected Harry Potter. The young professor had thrown together a plausible story, with multiple supporting facts and witnesses and no discernable flaws over the course of only two hours. While pondering the new and improved Slytherin qualities of his least favorite teacher, Draco was hit by a very painful cutting hex, causing a fair amount of bleeding on his shoulder.

"Ten points from Slytherin, Draco. Either you aren't paying attention in class or your reflexes have slowed greatly over the last two days. Either way, I think I'll assign detention for tonight at seven pm. Do you need to see the nurse?"

Draco cast an advanced healing charm on his arm, surprising much of the class. "I'm fine. Please continue."

Harry smirked. "Very well. Can anyone here demonstrate a mist-summoning charm?"

The NEWT class spent several hours discussing various spells to hide, blind ,obscure and confuse enemies before Harry divided them into two teams. "Today's exercise is easy. All you have to do is find and tag the members of the other team. If you get tagged, you are out of the game. Any questions?"

Katie Bell raised her hand. "By 'tag' do you mean hit them with a spell?"

"No, you need to actually get up to them and touch them."

"How do we know people won't cheat?" a Hufflepuff said, casting an untrusting glance at some nearby Slytherins.

"Good question. Macula Mano." Hary said, pointing at the class. "When you touch someone of the opposing team, you'll leave a mark on them. Once you are marked, you will no longer be able to mark anyone on the opposing team, so don't bother trying. If there are no more questions, head down to level three. The exercise will start in three minutes."

With that, the class descended into a completely dark practice room. A few students cast lumos spells but were quickly chewed-out by their teammates who did not want to give away their position. After three minutes, the true chaos began. With very little strategy or planning, most of the class charged the opposing team, causing heavy losses to both sides. After five minutes, there were only nine students left in the exercise. Harry was happy to note that Hermione, Neville, and Ron had all avoided the initial ruckus. The teams were now Hermione, Susan Bones, Michael Corner, and Draco Malfoy against Ron, Neville, Cho Chang, Pansy Parkinson, and Padma Patil.

The teams were huddled in opposite sides of the room, both vaguely aware of where the opposing group was situated. While Ron was describing the particulars of a two-pronged attack to his teammates, Hermione took matters into her own hands, conjuring what appeared to be a small glass globe and rolling it towards where she believed the other team was standing. As she rolled it she whispered to her team, "Close and cover your eyes and count to six."

Four seconds later, the globe exploded in a burst of incredibly bright light, thoroughly blinding and disorienting Ron's team. Hermione's group made short work of their opponents, ending the game. The class re-convened in the classroom for the rest of the period and discussed the results of the exercise.

"Lets work our way back from the end." Harry said, turning to Ron. "Where did you go wrong?"

Ron thought for a moment before responding. "We were in the middle of a battle, and I stopped to come up with a foolproof plan."

Pansy interjected, "All we really needed was a plan with a decent chance of success. We lost because the other team came up with a workable strategy and enacted it quickly."

"Excellent observations. Anyone else have any comments?"

Dean Thomas, one of the first to be eliminated, raised his hand. "Most of the class went into the fight without any strategy at all and all we succeeded in doing was decimating both teams."

"Another good observation. The key to winning a battle is striking a balance between quick, decisive action, and well-planned strategies. Your homework is to create an exercise that you believe would be useful to this class, including a detailed description of the activity and an analysis of how it would benefit your classmates. You're dismissed."

Harry's OWL level class that day was a review of first through fourth year spells that would likely be covered on the exams at the end of the school year. Harry passed out a list of spells and the students paired off and spent the whole period working their way down the list, making sure they could perform each spell correctly. Harry walked through the classroom giving students pointers here and there and occasionally hexing students when they least expected it.

At the end of the day, Harry waited for Malfoy in his office on the second level of his classroom. Promptly at seven pm, Draco came walking down the stairs.

"Have a seat, Draco." Harry said, motioning for a chair in front of his desk. "How did your discussion with your father go?"

Draco looked unsure how to respond for a moment before answering truthfully "I told him what I saw this morning outside the infirmary and in your classroom. He seemed satisfied."

"Good, now the more important question. Why didn't you tell him the truth?"

"I don't know what you mean. I told him truthfully what I saw this morning."

Harry laughed. "You seem to have left out the fact that I had no idea what you were talking about when you first arrived in my classroom this morning."

"Did I leave that out?"

"You did…my question is why?"

"Apparently, Potter, you know me much better than I know you. I have no interest in groveling at the feet of a half-blood self-proclaimed dark lord."

"So you believed the memories that I showed you?" Draco suddenly looked uncomfortable, realizing that the 'memories' Harry shared on the first day of class could have been fabricated. "Relax, Malfoy. I assure you they were one hundred percent true. I'm just surprised. So where do we go from here?"

"I still don't like you, Potter, and someday I just might decide to kill you." Malfoy paused for a moment. "But it isn't going to be on some filthy mud-blood's orders."

"Excellent. Your detention is over. See you in class, Malfoy." Draco stood up and began to leave the room when Harry added. "And ten points from Slytherin for using that kind of language in my office."

Author's Notes:

I just about died laughing after reading a couple very negative reviews of this story (from the same person). The main complaint was that the story wasn't "realistic" and the reviewer proceeded to give a lecture on what the "real" rules of magic are and how "logical" magic has to be. I'm hoping that the person is just a brilliant satirist, because it was quite funny.

If I wanted to be writing stories about "realistic" topics, I assure you I would not be writing Harry Potter fan fictions. Secondly, OF COURSE my Harry (and supporting characters) are somewhat out of character in this story. Did I not disclose upfront that I didn't like the direction the books turned? If I wanted an in-character, spineless, powerless Harry, I wouldn't have to write this story, would I?


	18. Chapter 17: If Halls Could Talk

Disclaimer: All of the characters in this fanfiction belong to Ms. Rowling. I don't own them and am not making any money off of this story.

Time to Prepare

Chapter 17 – If Halls Could Talk

_In the hallway outside the Ravenclaw Common Room_

As usual, the Ravenclaws were the first students out of their dormitory heading to breakfast on Thursday morning. What was unusual, however, was that many of the upper-year girls were not carrying their bookbags. Instead, each young lady was levitating their bags towards the Great Hall as they chatted about their typical topics – books, homework, and boys. What was even more unusual about this particular morning was that Luna Lovegood was included in the group.

As nearly the entire house made their way to breakfast, Myrtle appeared from a nearby suit of armor and charged at a group of first year students who fumbled for their wands until Mytle passed through them, causing a great amount of laughter. Seeing this transpire, Cho broke away from her friends and approached the first-years.

"What was that about?" she asked.

"Professor Harry asked Myrtle to test us outside of class." One of the young Ravenclaws answered.

Another added, "If we cast any spell she'll go away."

Cho looked concerned. "So you just failed your homework assignment?"

The first-years looked down at the ground, realizing Cho was right.

"That's not acceptable for a Ravenclaw. Until we have a chance to work on your reflexes I want you all to have your wands out at all times and have the lumos spell active. If you see Myrtle, all you have to say is 'Nox'. Can you do that?"

The youngsters nodded and got their wands out, starting the lumos spell.

"I want you all to be in the common room at seven tonight for some extra tutoring." Cho said before rejoining her friends.

_In the hallway outside the Gryffindor Common Room_

As usual, the Gryffindor's trickled out of their common room in groups of twos and threes. Hermione and Ginny were two of the first students out of the girl's dormitory and met up with Harry in the common room before heading to breakfast that morning. As they walked out of the portrait hall, a disheveled Ron came running up down the stairs from his own dormitory.

"Wait up!" Ron yelled. As he approached the group at a run, Ron came to a halt and was then thrown away from his friends.

Hermione instantly approached Ron to see if he was alright. "Oh Ron, I'm so sorry. I didn't realize my shield would do that."

A dazed Ron looked up at her. "What do you mean your shield did that?"

"Oh, I've just been working on a shield that would stop hostile objects as well as spells. I think you were just running so fast that the shield stopped you. I'll have to work on that."

Ginny, who had been standing right next to Hermione asked, "Well why didn't the shield stop me? I was standing much closer than Ron got?"

"Oh, I just used a bit of muggle physics in the spell. Only objects that have a momentum that could hurt me are stopped. A person walking towards me shouldn't feel anything, but if someone threw a brick at me, it would be stopped and thrown away."

This piqued Harry's curiosity. "How did you manage that?"

"Oh, it was simple really, the spell basically behaves like a rubber ball. The more momentum an object has when it approaches, the more violently it will be thrown away. The only difference is that with this rubber ball, unless the object has a certain base level of momentum, the shield doesn't register it at all"

Ron, who was now able to stand up, chimed in. "If you don't stop referring to me as 'the object' you're going to start giving me a complex."

"I really am sorry Ron. I certainly don't want you to get hurt every time you get a little...enthusiastic." she said blushing a bit.

Ron smiled. "Well, I really do think the spell is brilliant Hermione. Maybe we can work on it some more together."

"I'd like that a lot. Lets go get some breakfast."

_In the hallway outside the Slytherin Common Room_

The Slytherin sixth-years were the first out of their common room that morning, walking towards breakfast with their usual superior attitudes.

"Are we ever going to pay Potter back for killing Crabbe and Goyle?" Millicent Bulstrode said softly, so that only the other sixth-year Slytherins could hear.

"No." Malfoy replied as he kept walking.

"What do you mean, 'no'?"

"I mean that the stupid oafs got what they deserved for following an insane half-blood. Potter did us a favor."

"They were your friends, Draco."

"They were my followers, Milly, nothing more."

Blaise Zabini chimed in. "That's cold even for you, Malfoy."

"Malfoys do what they have to Blaise. It is obvious that Voldemort's time has passed, and lets face it, all of our parents are going to go down with him. We need to take some drastic action to ensure that our families survive."

"What are you talking about, Draco." Pansy Parkinson asked.

"I'm talking about taking my rightful place as Lord Malfoy by any means necessary and the rest of you should think about doing the same. This conversation is over until we are in a more private environment."

_In the hallway outside the Hufflepuff Common Room_

Like the Ravenclaws, the Hufflepuffs tended to walk to breakfast together, though they were not early risers like their studious counterparts. Susan Bones and Hannah Abbot were at the front of the group and, although they were only sixth-years, were generally considered to be the student leaders of the house.

"What do you mean Hufflepuff is going to win the house cup this year?" Hannah asked her friend.

"I mean that loyalty and hard work have gone unnoticed for too long, Hannah. We're going to win this year and I'm going to make it happen."

"You're starting to sound like a Slytherin, Susan."

Susan laughed. "Maybe I am. There's nothing wrong with a little ambition."

"So how do you plan on making this happen?"

"Well, for starters we're going to start acting like a house of wizards and witches instead of doormats." Susan responded.

_In the hallway outside the Great Hall_

As luck would have it, the Hufflepuffs reached the Great Hall just as the sixth-year Slytherins arrived.

"Well if it isn't the mudblood parade." Draco sneered.

Before Malfoy could utter another word, Susan had her wand out and yelled "Sangre Infervesco!" causing Malfoy to fall to the ground screaming in pain. "Insult my house again, Malfoy, and this spell will seem like a holiday on the beach." Susan said before kicking the screaming Slytherin in the side.

Harry and his friends had arrived in time to see the altercation and Harry immediately stepped in, saying "Twenty points from Hufflepuff for attacking another student and detention with me tonight, Ms. Bones." Harry then said, so that only Susan could hear, "And twenty-five points to Hufflepuff for a perfectly performed blood-boiling hex. Nicely done."


	19. Chapter 18: Detention

Disclaimer: All of the characters in this fanfiction belong to Ms. Rowling. I don't own them and am not making any money off of this story.

Time to Prepare

Chapter 18 – Detention

That evening, Susan Bones and Hannah Abbot entered Harry's office so that Susan could serve her detention.

"Hannah, I didn't expect to see you here."

"We decided it probably wasn't a good idea for Susan to be walking the halls alone right now."

"Good thinking. I would imagine there are some pretty vengeful Slytherins out for your blood today."

"I'll just be up in the classroom reading." Hannah said as she turned to leave.

Harry stopped her. "That's alright Hannah, you're welcome to stay."

"So what are we doing for my detention, Harry?" Susan asked.

"I considered having you write 'I must not hex pompous gits' with a blood quill, but decided to just talk instead."

Susan and Hannah laughed, having heard of Harry's detentions with Umbridge the prior year.

"How were your summers?"

Susan answered first. "Well, things have been pretty tense really. My aunt worked all the time, so I just stayed at home and read mostly. Hannah stayed with us for a few weeks."

"I actually met with your aunt over the summer."

"Yeah, I know. She had the bruises to prove it" Susan said, causing Harry to laugh. "You really impressed her, you know. She didn't stop going on about you for days, telling me how much I could learn from you and that I had to get you to restart the DA this year. I guess she didn't know you would be teaching."

Hannah interjected. "Why did you meet with her anyway?"

"She summoned me to her office when I showed up at the Ministry without a wand."

Susan suddenly lit up. "I had been meaning to ask you about that. How is it that you and all your friends do everything without wands now?"

"We practiced a lot over the summer." Harry said before changing the subject. "What was going on between you and Malfoy this morning anyway?"

"Oh, I'm just sick of people always picking on Hufflepuffs. I'm not going to take it anymore, Harry. We might be meeting like this a lot more often."

"What brought on this change?"

Susan blushed. "Actually…you did. The DA meant a lot to me last year. I'm not going to sit back and let other people fight for me. Valuing loyalty and hard work doesn't mean Hufflepuffs are weak and I plan on proving that to the rest of my house as well as Malfoy and Voldemort."

Hannah nodded in agreement.

Harry thought for a moment and then asked, "What do you think the two of you can do against Voldemort?"

Hannah answered, "Who said there would only be two of us?"

Harry laughed. "Good point. So you're both serious about getting a little more…active?"

"Absolutely" Susan responded.

"Follow me" Harry said and led the two Hufflepuffs to the third level's practice room where Hermione, Luna, Ginny, Ron and Neville were sparring. Harry's friends smiled and waved at the newcomers.

"Hey guys, do you feel up to another intensive training session like we had this summer?"

Ron immediately grinned and said "Absolutely!" The rest of them nodded, though Hermione looked unsure.

Harry turned to Hannah and Susan. "Before we start, you're both going to have to snap your wands," He said as if it was a common request.

"You're going to teach us how to do magic like the six of you?" Hannah asked.

"Yes" Harry replied matter-of-factly.

The two girls looked at each other and had an unspoken conversation before taking out their wands and snapping them in two.

Harry proceeded to cast the time-slowing spell before going into his explanation of wandless magic. Neither of the two Hufflepuffs took to wandless magic as easily as Harry and his five friends, but in a show of their house traits, Susan and Hannah kept working at it. After about eight hours, Susan was able to cast a weak lumos spell followed shortly by Hannah levitating a small book.

"Alright ladies, I had Luna and Ginny set up some beds downstairs, get some rest. We'll start again in about six hours."

Exhausted, the Hufflepuffs shuffled down the stairs into the chamber of secrets to find a very nice girl's dormitory set up around the stairwell. Harry and the other boys converted his office into a temporary dormitory for themselves.

After everyone woke up and ate some breakfast, they started working with Susan and Hannah again. It took about twenty minutes before the girls were able to reproduce their feats of wandless magic again and another few hours before they could do so on a reliable basis. They were still working with very simple spells however.

Harry stopped the practice and pulled the two of them aside. "What's the problem?"

An exhausted Susan answered, "What do you mean? This is really hard."

"That's exactly what I mean. It's not hard. If you are having a difficult time, it's only because you're making it so." Harry gave his words a few moments to sink in before continuing. "You're witches. You use _magic_! Now close your eyes, concentrate, and cast a spell!" Harry finished harshly.

Susan and Hannah both took deep breaths and concentrated. A moment later Harry fell to the ground he felt the effect of Susan's stupefy hex.

Surprising everyone, including herself, Hannah cast a very quick 'Finite Incantatum' to end the spell on Harry. Ginny, Luna, Ron, Neville and Hermione came running up with murderous looks in their eyes until Harry started laughing.

"Thirty points to Hufflepuff for being the first student to successfully attack me. I was _not _expecting that. Well done Susan." Turning to Hannah he added, "And five points for stopping her spell before these five arrived and tore you both to pieces."

After that breakthrough, their progress started going much quicker. On what seemed to be about the tenth day of training, Susan and Hannah were able to at least hold their own against the other six and would certainly have no trouble without a wand in their classes. As they were finishing a game of magical catch, Susan pulled Harry aside.

"What's up Susan?"

She hesitated. "I…I just want to know why you're doing this for me. You hardly even know me."

"I know enough. You've lost a lot of family to Voldemort but you're still a good person. And you were there for me last year on the train. You've shown you're willing to stand up for yourself." Harry stopped but Susan could tell there was something else he wasn't saying.

"What else?"

"Well, to be honest I'm worried about Hufflepuff. You have the most muggle-born students of any house. The pure-bloods that _are_ sorted into Hufflepuff tend to feel underappreciated. I'm hoping that you can show your house that they can defend themselves and that joining Voldemort isn't the only way to gain power and glory."

Susan was shocked by his candor. "So you're using me?" Harry looked embarrassed. "That's ok, I'm using you too. Maybe there's a little Slytherin in all of us." She said with a wink before joining Hannah to work on the patronus charm.

Hermione joined him shortly thereafter. "What was that all about?"

"Oh Susan and I were just getting some things out in the open."

"Speaking of out in the open, how many people do you plan on teaching wandless magic to?"

"Worried about losing your edge, 'Mione?"

Hermione replied "No!" with a little too much enthusiasm.

"You're too much Hermione." Harry laughed and walked away without answering her question.

Harry stopped the time-slowing charm just before breakfast for the rest of Hogwards and the eight wandless protégés rejoined the rest of Hogwarts ten days older and much stronger than they were the day before. The eight of them left Harry's classroom and headed towards the Great Hall for breakfast. As they passed the stairs leading to the owlry, they encountered Draco Malfoy, apparently having just sent a letter.

Ignoring everyone else, Draco nodded at Harry and said a curt, "Potter."

"Malfoy," Harry responded in a similar tone. "Awfully far from your dormitory this morning aren't you?"

"About as far as we are from Gryffindor and Hufflepuff," Malfoy said icily.

"Indeed." Harry replied before walking past Malfoy, ending the conversation.

His friends quickly followed and Ron asked, "What was that all about? I think I preferred the insults. He's downright creepy when he is being civil."

"Malfoy and I have come to somewhat of an understanding."

Hermione interjected at this point. "You know, Malfoy never goes anywhere without two or three other Slytherins with him. I wonder what he was doing that he didn't want them to know about."

"Wasn't it obvious?" Luna replied airily. "I suppose it's not my place to ruin the surprise if it wasn't."

"Luna, you know what he was doing up in the owlry?" Harry asked.

"Of course. I suppose you'll have to wait until tomorrow though." She answered as they entered the hall and joined her housemates at the Ravenclaw table.


	20. Chapter 19: Slytherin Revolution

Disclaimer: All of the characters in this fanfiction belong to Ms. Rowling. I don't own them and am not making any money off of this story.

Time to Prepare

Chapter 19 – Slytherin Revolution

It had been a very long week for just about everyone at Hogwarts. The first week of school was often the hardest as everyone, student and teacher alike, re-adjusted to academic life. As such, Saturday morning came as a welcome relief to everyone present in the Great Hall as they relaxed and ate breakfast, being in no particular hurry to get to any class or homework.

Most of the school was quite surprised when owls started filtering into the hall carrying a special edition of the Daily Prophet. As he did not subscribe to the paper, Harry was especially surprised when one of the owls dropped the special edition in his lap. Harry quickly unrolled the paper and began to read.

**_Narcissa Malfoy Arrested, Executed Based on Testimony of Son_**

_In a surprise raid last night, Aurors stormed Malfoy Mansion seizing over two hundred dark objects and arresting Narcissa Malfoy. At a press conference, Department of Magical Law Enforcement Director Amelia Bones confirmed the arrest, also revealing that Ms. Malfoy was executed after questioning under veritaserum. According to a Ministry insider, aurors have long suspected Ms. Malfoy's involvement with Voldemort but have been unable to confirm such suspicions._

_Narcissa Malfoy's husband, Lucius Malfoy, has been on the run from aurors since his escape from a Ministry holding cell shortly after his arrest last June._

_The breakthrough in the case came from an unexpected source as young Draco Malfoy wrote a letter to Director Bones providing detailed information on Ms. Malfoy's dark activities. Director Bones noted that the courageous young man also provided a great deal of information that could lead to the capture of Lucius Malfoy._

_In an interview, Draco Malfoy told the Daily Prophet, "I could no longer stand by while my mother and father destroyed our family in the name of a crazed dark wizard. I have tried to get them to change their ways for years, but based on their activities over the past months, I realized that there was no hope of saving the parents I once knew and loved. As my father is a wanted criminal and my mother was recently executed, it is with a heavy heart that I assume the title of Lord Malfoy. In the coming weeks I will be making a donation to the Ministry for its help in putting this dark chapter in the Malfoys' history to an end. Donations will also be made to charitable organizations helping ease the suffering of those hurt by Voldemort. My sincerest hope is that, with time, the wizarding world will be able to see past the mistakes of one generation."_

The special edition also included interviews with Director Bones, Minister Fudge, and several aurors who participated in the raid, but Harry didn't need to read the rest.

Passing the paper to Ron and Ginny, Harry simply said, "Wow, he is very good."

As the rest of Harry's friends finished reading the article, Draco actually stood up from his place at the Slytherin table and approached the Gryffindors. Harry noticed a reporter and cameraman at the entrance to the Great Hall as well.

Smiling, Draco extended his hand and said "I hope you won't hold the sins of my parents against me, Harry." He then added so that only Harry could hear, "And if you make this look good for the press, maybe I'll give you a job as my personal servant when I'm Minister of Magic."

Harry smiled and took Draco's hand, "It's good to have you on the right side of this war, Draco." Also adding something that only Draco could hear, "And the day you become Minister is the day I leave Britain, Malfoy."

Harry heard a camera click as they shook hands, knowing that they would be on the cover of the Sunday Prophet.

Over the second week of school, Pansy Parkinson, Blaise Zabini, Millicent Bulstrode and several other Slytherin students followed Draco's example, leading to several arrests and executions. In one week, the older Slytherin students had gone from spoiled children of deatheaters to some of the most influential members of society. Not a day went by that there wasn't an article on the front page of the Daily Prophet praising the new aristocracy of Wizarding Britain for cutting off the "rotting branches of their family trees."

Harry, for one, was glad to be out of the papers, but during Thursday night's practice in Harry's classroom, Hannah Abbot approached him.

"What are you going to do about the Slytherins, Harry?"

"I'm not sure what you mean, Hannah."

"Well, the way things are going, it looks like you're going to kill Voldemort, only to hand Britain over to Malfoy and his stooges."

"There's not much I _can _do."

"You are so hopeless. You need a press agent. Can you get to Diagon Alley on Saturday?"

"I guess so, why?"

"We're going to go stir things up for Malfoy and his crew."

Friday during classes, Hannah was busy writing a speech for Harry. She also sent off an anonymous tip that the famous Boy-who-lived would be doing some shopping the next day to several news organizations including the Daily Prophet and the Wizarding Wireless Network.

All of Harry's friends decided to go with him on the trip and the group took a portkey to just outside Gringott's. Before they had taken five steps, they were swarmed by reporters from all directions.

"Mr. Potter! Do you have any comments on the recent capture and execution of deatheaters?"

"Mr. Potter! What is your relationship with Draco Malfoy? Is it true he tutors you in Charms and Potions?"

"Harry! How long have you been dating Pansy Parkinson?"

Hannah literally silenced the throng of reporters with a wave of his hand. "Harry won't be answering any questions today, but I will provide a brief statement."

"Thank you Hannah" Harry said with a nod before addressing the reporters. "Regarding the recent deatheater captures, I am truly grateful to have so many of Hogwart's students joining the right side of this war, however late they may be to the table. I only hope that the students in question are sincere in their efforts to stop Voldemort and not simply joining the rising tide of forces against the Dark Lord. I would like to sincerely thank the wizards and witches who have been openly fighting Voldemort since his return. Without the courage shown by those firmly against Voldemort from the very beginning, I don't know that we would have ever seen the day that the Malfoys, Zabinis, Parkinsons, and Bulstrodes joined our cause."

Finished with his statement, Harry turned and left with most of his friends, leaving Hannah and Ron behind to get rid of the press. Hannah removed the silencing charm and said, "Mr. Potter is a very private person who would very much like to be left alone for the rest of his shopping trip. Any questions you have for him should be sent via owl and he will do his best to respond to those inquiries that deserve his attention. Thank you."

Hannah and Ron caught up with Harry, Hermione, Luna, Ginny, Susan, and Neville at Florean Fortesque's. Not being able to hold it in any longer, Ron asked with a straight face, "So how long _have_ you been dating Pansy Parkinson, Mr. Potter?" causing the whole group to burst into laughter.

After the laughter died down and everyone was taking a bite of ice cream, Harry responded, "I wouldn't say we're dating…unless you count a broom closet as a date." Harry was immediately covered in various flavors of ice cream that his friends had promptly spit up in their laughter.

The group spent a few hours lazily walking around Diagon Alley eventually making their way to Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes where they found Angelina Johnson and Lee Jordan selling products to a much older crowd than one would expect in a joke shop.

Angelina greeted them, "Hey guys, aren't you supposed to be at school?"

Ron smiled, "Having a professor as your best friend has some advantages. We're on a field trip. How are things going here without Fred and George."

"Things have been great," Lee answered. "I actually think Fred and George have more time to come up with ideas while teaching than they did when they were running this store. You should see some of the products they've come up with in the last couple weeks." He added beckoning them into the back room.

"This," Lee said holding up a small object, "Is their newest product, the Multicolor Splatterdart. Simply throw it at a person, place or thing and you can add color to any situation." He added sounding a lot like a commercial and throwing the dart at a wall that immediately exploded into an impossible number of colors, each more garish than the next.

Moving on to the next crate, "This is the new line of Barely-There Undergarments. Put these on and you're barely there," and demonstrating by putting on a pair of oversized boxershorts over his clothes and fading out of view slightly. "Not as effective as an invisibility cloak, but a lot cheaper."

Lee proceeded to show the group all of the latest and greatest products, leading to a few purchases before Harry and his friends had to leave for Hogwarts.

When they entered the main doors to the school, Harry was immediately set upon by a furious-looking Draco Malfoy.

"What do you think you were doing today, Potter?"

"Having a nice day shopping with my friends, Draco. Why?"

"You know what I mean, Potter. _'However late they may be to the table'_? You're going to pay for that."

"Sod off, Malfoy. You're the one who decided to make this a battle in the press."

"If you want a battle, you'll get one." Draco responded before storming off, having shown much more emotion during the encounter than he had shown in the prior five years of schooling.

Breakfast the next morning was back to normal, with most of the Slytherins glaring at the Gryffindor table and the Gryffindors staring right back. The Sunday Daily Prophet had pictures of Harry and his friends' trip to Diagon Alley posted all over and full coverage of his remarks to the press. The reporter from the Prophet had obviously been busy since the impromptu press conference, because the paper also had fairly thorough biographies on each of Harry's friends.

Many of the students at the Hufflepuff table could hardly believe that two of their housemates were mentioned all over the Daily Prophet. The whole table seemed to swell with a level of pride that hadn't been seen since the Tri-Wizard tournament. Susan seemed to be enjoying the heightened level of house pride, while Hannah seemed content to deflect any attention directed at her to Susan or Harry even though it was her that orchestrated the whole event.

Back at the Gryffindor table, Ron was talking about how they would next strike out at the Slytherins when Harry stopped him.

"Ron, I'm sorry but I'm done with the Slytherins for a while. I really need to focus on how I'm going to stop Voldemort. Lets just deal with one dark wizard at a time, ok?"

"Oh, sure Harry. Sorry." Ron replied. "Anything I can do to help with that situation?"

"I don't know. I just have no idea how to actually end this. Any ideas?"

"Not right now, but I'll work on it. We all will, mate. You aren't in this alone."

"Thanks Ron. Besides, how much trouble can a few Slytherin students get into while they're in school?"


	21. Chapter 20: Wargames The Announcement

Disclaimer: All of the characters in this fanfiction belong to Ms. Rowling. I don't own them and am not making any money off of this story.

Time to Prepare

Chapter 20 – Wargames - The Announcement

Albus Dumbledore calmly brought order to the Hogwarts staff for their first meeting of the year.

"Thank you all for arriving on time," he said, glancing specifically at Fred and George Weasley. "I know there are quite a few issues we need to discuss today, so let's get started. Argus, I believe you wanted to speak first?"

"Yes sir. The use of magic in the halls between classes has gotten out of hand. Something needs to be done to put a stop to it."

Harry chimed in, "What exactly are they doing that needs to be stopped?"

"Magic! The use of magic in the halls between classes is forbidden."

"But why? I know it should be stopped if the students are attacking each other or dueling, but what is the problem with practicing spells or levitating a book bag, which is all I've seen the students doing."

"I agree with Professor Potter," McGonnagal interrupted. "I see no problem with the use of magic outside of class as long as it is done in a responsible manner. In fact, my classes this year are performing significantly better than any other class I can remember."

"I am inclined to agree, Minerva" Albus Dumbledore added. "I will ask the portraits to keep an eye on the situation and inform me of any misbehavior, but until the privilege is abused, I see no reason to stop the practice."

The staff went on to discuss various run-of-the-mill issues affecting the school before Albus eventually ended the meeting.

"Harry, would you mind staying behind for a few minutes."

"Sure, Albus. What is it?"

"I'd like to speak with you about some of the 'exercises' you've been doing in your classes."

Harry, sensing a scolding coming, replied "I'm sorry, do you think I should tone things down a bit?"

"Quite the opposite. I'd actually like to expand them. How would you feel about overseeing a school-wide version of your…what did you call it?...capture the flag?"

Monday morning started normally, as the students and staff of Hogwarts assembled in the Great Hall for breakfast. Part-way through the meal, Dumbledore stood and addressed the school's population.

"Welcome everyone. I'd like to announce that classes for the coming week have been cancelled." The announcement was interrupted by some gasps, some disappointed sighs (mostly from the Ravenclaws) and a few cheers from Gryffindor and Slytherin. Dumbledore continued, "I assure you that although classes have been cancelled, your education has not. Professor Potter will explain."

Harry stood, noticing that all eyes were on him and the room was completely silent. "For the next five days, the school will be your classroom and every other inhabitant of this castle will be your teacher. Everyone needs to go back to their dormitories and pack their belongings and meet back here at 11:30 for further instructions."

The hall burst into action as students frantically finished their breakfast and headed towards their dormitories, chatting nervously about what was in store while the faculty sat calmly eating their breakfasts and discussing the same topic. Harry sat down at his place and calmly said, "Shouldn't you all be packing? I don't want you to be late."

He was met with some shocked expressions, some sly smiles, and a couple giddy grins on two particular redheads as the faculty of Hogwarts quickly filed out of the Great Hall. Harry tucked into his breakfast, enjoying the silence of the Great Hall until he heard a slight cough from the Ravenclaw table.

"Oh, hi, Luna." Harry said, "I didn't see you there. Shouldn't you be packing."

"Oh no. I hate having to rush through breakfast, so I decided to pack last night instead." Luna replied, patting her pocket, where Harry assumed her shrunken trunk was located. 

"Can I ask how you knew you needed to be packed this morning?"

Luna dreamily replied, "Of course you can, Harry," before taking a bite of toast and chewing while humming softly to herself.

Harry sat there in silence before asking, "Luna, how did you know you needed to be packed this morning?"

"I suppose I didn't need to be packed this morning." After a pause she continued, "But it wouldn't be very pleasant wearing the same clothes all week, would it?"

Harry responded "No, I suppose it wouldn't" before realizing she had completely dodged the question. "But Luna, how did you know you would be wearing the same clothes all week if you didn't pack?"

Luna looked utterly confused by the question. "What else would I wear?"

Harry smacked his forehead onto the table. "Luna, you are one of my best friends, but sometimes you can be very frustrating."

She looked saddened at that. "I'm sorry, Harry. I really don't understand what you're asking. Didn't you pack last night."

"Well of course, but I already knew I wouldn't be staying in my dormitory tonight."

Luna brightened up. "That's why I packed too! See, we're not so different."

"But Luna, HOW did you know you wouldn't be staying in your dormitory tonight? I didn't tell anyone but Dumbledore."

Luna, once again, looked very confused. After a moment of thought, she replied "What do you do when you are getting ready for bed, Harry?"

"I brush my teeth, wash my face, pick out clothes for the next day, put on my pajamas, and get into bed. Why?"

"Why do you pick out clothes for the next day?"

"Um…so I'll have something to wear."

"But who told you that you would need something to wear the next day?"

"Well nobody told me. I just know."

Luna brightened. "Ok. That's my answer too. I just know," she said, packing up her belongings, having finished her leisurely breakfast. "See you at 11:30, Harry."

Author's notes: I have to really apologize to all of my readers. I know it has been forever and a day since I updated. My computer crashed back in November and I lost all of my notes and outlines on the story. It also took me a while to save up enough money for a new computer. After finally getting a new computer, it took me a while to get motivated to continue this story. It is really hard to see all of my outlines go down the drain. I still know where the story is going, but a lot of the details were lost and I'm working from scratch. I'll try to update much more frequently from here on out. My sincerest apologies once again.


	22. Chapter 21: Wargames The Tasks

Disclaimer: All of the characters in this fanfiction belong to Ms. Rowling. I don't own them and am not making any money off of this story.

Time to Prepare

Chapter 21 – Wargames: The Tasks

The students and staff of Hogwarts began filing into the Great Hall a few minutes before 11:30, anxious to see what Harry had in store for them. Once everyone was assembled Harry waved his hand, creating a small insignia on each person's robes before he addressed the school.

"You have just been sorted into three teams. The only things you need to know before I leave you are this. Every password in the castle has just been reset and only I know them. Professor Dumbledore, Madame Pomfrey and I are the only three people at Hogwarts who are not part of this exercise. Professor Dumbledore and I will be overseeing things from his office, which will be off limits to all participants. You are welcome to see Madame Pomfrey at any time, but once you enter the hospital wing, you will have to remain there until the conclusion of the event. As soon as your team has reached a unanimous decision regarding who your leader will be, further instructions will be given to you. Good luck." With that, Harry waved his hand and disappeared from the Great Hall, leaving chaos in his wake as students and staff tried to gather in their respective groups.

Hermione was the first to act decisively, muttering "Sonorus" before addressing the room. "If you have a Phoenix on your robe, we're meeting in five minutes in the astronomy tower." With that she waved her hand to end the spell and made her way out of the Great Hall with about a third of the school.

Taking his cue from Hermione, Ron yelled out "Sphinxes! Quiddich Pitch! Right now!" and left the room, leaving only the Hippogryph team in the Great Hall.

_Team Hippogryph_

Notable among those left in the Great Hall were Ginny Weasley, Neville Longbottom, Draco Malfoy, Cho Chang, Hannah Abbot, and Professor McGonnagal.

Many of the students seemed to be waiting for McGonnagal to give some orders, so she cut them off. "No. I am not a leader. I will do my best to make sure we succeed in whatever task we are given, but I believe another choice for leader would be appropriate."

Ginny was the first to speak after that. "We'll take nominations then. Anyone?"

Draco was quick to nominate himself. Neville nominated Ginny, which lead to a heated debate with most of those present throwing their support to Ginny.

"Ok, so we've chosen a leader. Why don't we have any further instructions yet?" Neville asked.

"Don't you Griffindors ever listen? The choice has to be unanimous, and I'm not voting for Weasel here," one of the Slytherins said. "I'd like to win whatever this is, and I think our leader needs to have some Slytherin guile."

Ginny was about to object when Hannah surprised everyone. "They're right. We do need a leader with some cunning. I nominate Ginny and Draco as co-leaders."

No one present could really come up with any objections, so the choice was made. A small envelope appeared on the floor next to Ginny and Draco, which Draco quickly snatched up and read aloud.

_"_Team Hippogryph. Your task is simple. Conquer the castle. Your success will be judged based on how many members of the other two teams are left in the castle at the end of the exercise and the percentage of the school they occupy."

Draco got a gleam in his eye and immediately got two work. "Did anyone here get a good look at the other two teams' emblems?"

Cho spoke up. "I saw the Phoenix emblem pretty well. Luna was standing right next to me and she was put on that team."

"Susan was put on the Sphinx team, I got a decent look at her mark." Hannah commented.

Draco quickly found two first-year Slytherin students. "Ashley! Jacob! Come here." Turning to Cho and Hannah he said, "Transfigure their marks into the other teams' emblems. I want you two to get to their meetings as fast as you can. If anyone questions you, you tell them you got lost."

"You're kidding, right?" One of the first-years, Ashley, asked. "You know there are going to be Slytherins in the other groups, right? They won't buy that for a second."

Ginny interjected. "You're right. Tell them you decided to stay here to see what the other teams were planning. You let them know that Hippogryph's goal is to prevent anyone from leaving the castle."

Draco looked rather surprised after hearing Ginny's plan. "You heard the woman. Get going!" he barked, sending the two first-years on their way.

_Team Phoenix_

Hermione looked around at the students and staff gathering in the astronomy tower. Her team included Luna, Katie Bell, Professor Flitwick, and Blaise Zabini.

After a quick vote, Katie was elected as the leader and a note appeared in her hand, which she read aloud to those gathered.

_"_Team Pheonix. Five crystals have been hidden throughout Hogwarts. Each one is engraved with a phoenix. Gather all five crystals and keep them secure until the end of this exercise to achieve success."

As Katie finished reading the note, a first-year Slytherin she didn't know threw open the door with a loud bang and entered the room, clearly out of breath.

Blaise Zabini quickly had his wand trained on the young girl. "Where have you been, Ashley?"

"I stayed behind in the Great Hall to see what the other teams were up to. The Hippogryphs are supposed to keep everyone inside the castle, which could be tough considering the other team is meeting on the quiddich pitch."

Blaise gave the young girl an unreadable look. "Fine, but pay attention, you've already missed part of the meeting."

Katie put her quiddich training to good use dividing her group into three teams. Turning to the largest group, she said "Hermione and Blaise, I want you to be in charge of looking for the crystals. Search the entire castle, but watch your backs. Who knows what the other two teams are going to be up to."

Turning to the smallest group, Katie continued "Luna and Professor Flitwick, I want your group to cause as much chaos for the other two teams as possible. Use your imaginations and trip them up any way you can. The rest of us will be setting up our headquarters here and defending any crystals we do find. Any questions?" Hearing none, she snapped "Get to work people!"

_Team Sphinx_

Ron's team took quite a while to gather on the Quiddich pitch, but when everyone had arrived, the team included Ron, Susan Bones, Pansy Parkinson, Millicent Bulstrode, and Fred and George Weasley.

After a long and heated debate (during which a first-year Slytherin boy was able to sneak in unnoticed), Ron was finally elected as the team's leader, immediately receiving their instructions.

"Oy, listen up everyone! This note says we're supposed to capture the leaders of the other two teams. First thing we need to do is figure out who they are and where they are in the castle."

I want you in teams of five searching the castle. I want everyone to meet back here in three hours to report what you have found out.


End file.
